Summary

The novel is presented as a book written by SarahLena “Sunny” Shelton, a high-profile music journalist. The novel begins with an ‘Editor’s Note’ from Sunny, who writes that her father was a drummer named Jimmy Curtis. Jimmy had an affair with singer Opal Jewel in 1970; Jimmy was married to Sunny’s mother, and Sunny was born in 1971. In 1970, Jimmy was beaten to death by a racist gang during a show where Opal and Jimmy were performing. In 2015, not long after Sunny became the first Black, female editor-in-chief of renowned music magazine Aural, Sunny encountered Opal Jewel by chance at a prestigious music show. This encounter convinced Sunny that she should write about Opal, Jimmy, and Neville “Nev” Charles (a famous musician who was once a collaborator with Opal.) Sunny ends this introduction by saying that, while doing research and interviews for this...