The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Blackman, Malorie. Noughts and Crosses. Penguin Books, 2020.

Blackman’s novel is divided into 117 chapters, each alternating between Callum and Sephy’s point of view. Callum is a nought and Sephy is a Cross. The first half of the novel takes place when Callum is 15 and Sephy is 13 and the second half picks up two years later.

Blackman begins the novel with a prologue set three years before the official start of the novel. Meggie McGregor witnesses Kamal Hadley slap his wife, Jasmine. Consequently, Meggie is fired from her job as a maid for the Hadley family. That night, Meggie and Ryan’s daughter, Lynette, disappears.

The first half of the novel centers around Callum’s and Sephy’s experience at Heathcroft School. Callum hopes that attending the traditionally Cross-only school will help him move up in the world. However, he is in for a rude awakening. Callum experiences countless instances of discrimination while at Heathcroft. Sephy does her best to defend Callum, however her good intentions often work against them.

Both Callum and Sephy are unhappy at home. Sephy envies the closeness of Callum’s family while Callum envies her family’s wealth. Callum dislikes his irritating, violent older brother Jude. Callum adores his older sister, Lynette, even though she is mentally ill. Lynette suffers from the trauma of her mysterious disappearance. She is convinced that her skin is black, that she is a Cross. Jude hates Crosses and hates Lynette for constantly claiming to be one. Sephy, on the other hand, suffers from having an alcoholic mother and an essentially absent father. She is not very close to her sister Minnie and, instead, turns to alcohol to cope with her family troubles.

The climax of the novel occurs when there is a bombing at Dundale Shopping Centre. The Liberation Militia, a nought terrorist group which Jude and Ryan are a part of, is responsible for the bombing. Callum manages to save Sephy in time. However, Ryan is found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. Consequently, Callum gets suspended from Heathcroft and never returns. Through the help of a lawyer secretly hired by Jasmine, Ryan manages to escape the death penalty and is sentenced to life imprisonment instead. Ryan dies while trying to escape the prison.

In the meantime, Sephy and Callum become romantically involved. Callum displaces all his anger towards his father’s death onto Sephy, simply because she is a Cross. As a result, him and Sephy grow apart. Sephy decides to go to Chivers Boarding School. At Jude’s suggestion, Callum decides to join the Liberation Militia. Sephy writes Callum a letter asking him to run away from her. He opens her letter too late. Sephy drives away to Chivers as Callum runs up to her house.

The second half of the novel picks up two years later. Sephy is relatively happy at the boarding school. She is part of a dissident group. Their goal is to peacefully promote integration between noughts and Crosses. Callum, on the other hand, is a sergeant in the Liberation Militia. Jude entrusts Callum with the special mission of kidnapping Sephy. Their goal is to collect ransom money from her father, who is an important politician. After kidnapping Sephy and bringing her to a cabin in the woods, Callum realizes that he is still in love with her. He tells her so. They have sex.

Jude tells Callum they need to leave the cabin as members of their group have been arrested. Apparently, there is a mole in the Liberation Militia. Jude and Callum get into a fight because Jude believes that Callum raped Sephy, which was not part of the plan. In the midst of the chaos, Sephy manages to escape. Callum finds her in the woods and gives her directions to the nearest road. Sephy tells Callum she knows who the mole is. She recognized one of their men as an employee of her father’s.

Back at home, Sephy tells no one what really happened between her and Callum. Minnie realizes Sephy is pregnant and tells their parents. Kamal and Jasmine want Sephy to get an abortion, but Sephy refuses.

Callum and Sephy meet for one last time in the rose garden outside her home. They discuss their love for one another and decide on baby names. An alarm goes off and Callum is captured.

Kamal visits Callum in prison to present him with an ultimatum. If Callum wants to live, Sephy must abort the baby. Otherwise, Callum will hang.

Callum chooses to die. Right up until his hanging, he remains hopeful that one day there will be peace between noughts and Crosses. Sephy shouts at him from the crowd in the prison that she loves him. Sephy names her baby Callie Rose. The baby will have Callum’s last name.