Wilson Wong lies in a hospital bed with no memory of what put him there. What he does remember is working his butt off at two jobs, one as a delivery boy at his Ba's carryout. Willie needs to make enough money to buy the ten speed bicycle hanging in Caprelli's window.
Like most eleven year olds Willie is competitive. He loves baseball and riding bikes. The 6th grader is small for his age (his sister Penny calls him shrimp), but that doesn't keep him from going toe-to-toe with best bud Mo Willoughby. Whether it's a bike race or game of Strikeout, Willie is up for the challenge.
What's different about Willie is being the only Chinese kid at Bagley Elementary, the least of his worries now. In order for Wilson Wong to wake up from his coma, he needs to figure out what happened. From the dreamories he has at night, along with what he can recall of past and recent events, the last being the 12th Street Riots, Willie tries to piece it all together. Looking back, we see what his life has been like growing up in 1960s Detroit.