The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Perkins-Valdez, Dolen. Take My Hand. Berkley, 2022.

Dolen Perkins-Valdez's novel Take My Hand follows the life of the protagonist and first person narrator Civil Townsend, a nurse, doctor, and social activist. Portions of the novel are set in 2016 in the narrative present. These sections alternate with sections set in 1973 and thus the narrative past. The novel employs both the past and present tenses and shifts between temporal eras in order to enact Civil's fraught relationship with the past. For the sake of clarity, the following guide employs a linear mode of explanation and relies upon the present tense.

Civil Townsend graduates from college in 1972 and takes a job as a nurse with the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic. She believes in the clinic's mission, and hopes that through the establishment she can help young women who are in need, particularly those in the Black community. She therefore decides not to work with her dad's practice and throws herself into her work.

Civil is assigned to the Erica and India Williams case. She is to pay them an at-home visit and administer birth control shots. She is surprised to learn that the girls are only 11 and 13 and that India has not even begun to menstruate. She soon learns that neither sister is sexually active either. In spite of her confusion, Civil does not question her work as she believes that her supervisor Mrs. Linda Seager is upholding the clinic's principles. However, not long later, Civil's best friend and ex-boyfriend Tyrell Ralsey informs her that the birth control the clinic is using might cause cancer. Civil cannot believe the government would back such a product, and decides to ignore the history of medical experimentation on and exploitation of Black bodies.

Not long later, however, Civil discovers that Seager has had Erica and India sterilized without their consent. She tries to confront Seager, but Seager insists that the girl's father Mace Williams and grandmother Patricia Williams gave their consent. Because India cannot speak, Mace cannot read, and Patricia is elderly and uneducated, Civil doubts that they understood the paperwork. She therefore begins to work with Ty's mother, a lawyer, and her legal colleague, Lou Feldman, to pursue justice on behalf of the girls. Lou soon files a suit against the clinic. Seager fires Civil and Civil joins Lou in supporting the girls' case.

The case eventually goes to trial. Civil wants to believe that it will affect change, but is afraid to hope for positive results. In the meantime, she tries to face her own personal challenges. After getting pregnant with Ty's baby the year prior, Civil got an abortion. She knows why she made the decision, but continues to question herself in the months following. She is afraid of speaking with Ty about what happened, because she has yet to process her feelings. Meanwhile, he, her parents, and her former colleague, Alicia, encourage Civil to pursue a medical degree and become a doctor.

After Lou wins the case on behalf of the Williams girls and women like them across the nation, Civil tries to start her life over. She says goodbye when the Williams move out of town and she starts working for her father while attending medical school. She soon becomes a successful doctor.

Years later, Civil adopts a daughter named Anne. When Civil is 67, Civil receives word that India is sick. The news makes her realize that she needs to tell Anne the truth about her past life and her involvement with the Williams girls. The news about India also inspires her to travel south to visit the Williamses, Ty, Alicia, and Lou. Over the course of the trip, Civil rekindles old relationships, makes amends for the hurt she caused, and makes peace with her former version of self.