The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Onyebuchi, Tochi. Riot Baby. New York: Tor.com, 2020.

Part I of Riot Baby takes place in the South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles. A child named Ella is living there with her mother and a woman she calls Grandma even though she is not her biological grandmother. Ella has a “Thing” (9) — her term for the superpowers that allow her to see into the future and move about through astral projection. She sees the future violent death of her neighbor's baby, Jelani, who will be felled by a gang member's stray bullet at age 10. Ella's mother is pregnant with a baby Ella knows will be a boy. It is 1992 and the streets are full of gang violence. One day, a riot breaks out after police officers being tried for using excessive force against a Black man named Rodney King are acquitted. Amid the chaos, a leader from Ella's church picks Ella and Grandma up in his car and takes them to the hospital, explaining that Ella's mother is in labor.

In Part II, Ella, her brother Kev, and their mother are living in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Ella is using her powers in new ways, exploding the heads of the rats that infest their apartment. Kev is a bright student with a crush on a girl named Jamila who works at the nearby bodega. Outside the bodega, Kev runs into some young men who tease him for being so smart. He watches as the police arrive and start harassing the young men, making them get on the ground and then handcuffing them, only to release them moments later.

One night, Kev returns home to find Ella using her powers to choke their mother. Kev feels furious and afraid of Ella. Another night, he comes home and finds Ella watching a news story on television about a Black man named Sean Bell who was shot and killed by the police. Ella says, “Something bad is gonna happen” (45) and then she disappears. Their mother tells Kev that Ella is angry and “she needs to go be with herself for a little bit” (46).

Some time later, Kev has become friends with the young men who hang out in front of the bodega. He trades insults with them before going inside to get a sandwich. The police arrive and Kev gets into a verbal dispute with them. One officer hits him and handcuffs him, only to release him.

One night, Kev takes part in a robbery, presumably with these young men. He runs into the bodega afterward where he is arrested by police, who slam his face onto the bodega counter in front of Jamila.

In Part III, Ella is in an unnamed desert, working to harness the potential of her powers without hurting anyone. Now 18 years old, Kev is in Rikers Prison, and Ella visits him through astral projection. He tells her that if she wants to see him, she needs to come in person, and she agrees. When she visits, she can read the minds of the other inmates and visitors. Ella takes Kev on an astral projection journey to Mississippi, where their mother is from.

Ella visits Kev again and notices that he appears to be hurt. She has recently heard about another Black man murdered by police, Oakland resident Oscar Grant. Kev gets into a brawl with other inmates and is placed in solitary confinement. Ella uses her powers to try to give money to her mother, but her mother does not want it. Ella storms out, but returns, and finds her mother has collapsed. Kev tells Ella about a rodeo prisoners of Louisiana State Penitentiary are encouraged to take part in. His description of the event is vivid, but Kev has never been to this prison.

Ella learns her mother has cancer. She visits her mother's memories and discovers she once had a stillbirth as a result of racist medical neglect. She senses her mother's anger and it makes her feel free. Later, Ella appears before Kev and tells him their mother died. Kev attempts to hang himself in his cell, but he stops when he has a vision of two women getting married in the prison chapel. Soon after, Kev begins counseling other inmates who are on suicide watch. He is nearing the date of his parole hearing.

Ella visits Kev and they share a vision of the historical American South. They see two Black boys escaping slavery and a young Black man laboring as a sharecropper for a white overseer. They see their mother as a child.

In Part IV, Kev is paroled and moves west to Watts, a planned community for parolees. He is given a house and a job, and attends support group meetings for formerly incarcerated people. The parole board implanted a computer chip in his thumb, and he learns that he is being drugged through the chip when he experiences symptoms of anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. Ella visits Kev through astral projection and takes him back to South Central on the day of his birth. He witnesses the riot. Ella tells him, “This is what made you” (168). Ella then shows Kev a vision of a post-apocalyptic United States, where Confederate monuments, police stations, and whole cities have been destroyed. Kev feels that this vision represents freedom for Black Americans.