Melody Ellison is a nine-year-old African-American girl living with her family in Detroit, Michigan, during the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Her parents are Will, who works in an auto assembly line, and Frances. Frances' parents (Melody's grandparents) are Frank Porter, a florist; and "Big Momma" Porter, who teaches piano and voice. Melody's older brother, Dwayne, wants to be a Motown singer;[34] her oldest sister, Yvonne, is a student at Tuskegee University; her sister, Lila, is in middle school and lives at home.
