George Washington Jonson is determined to forge a new life. After growing up in one of Atlanta’s poorest housing projects, he enlists in the U.S. Army. When events lead him back home, he joins the police force. Jonson is now patrolling the streets he grew up on with his new partner, a shady legacy cop. Jonson has fashioned a new life in an affluent suburb with his white wife and stepson, though he’s still policing his old neighborhood, and now tasked with training hot-headed rookie recruits. One night on patrol, a  confrontation with a white teenager takes a violent turn. That single gunshot sets into motion a series of escalating lies. When the white-washed veneer of Jonson’s life begins to crack, the story splits, presenting two contrasting versions of the American experience.

UC Berkley freshman D’aron Davenport is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends. But everything changes in the group’s alternative history class when D’aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded “Patriot Days.” His announcement is met with righteous indignation and inspires one of his friends to suggest a “performative intervention” to protest the reenactment.