The first chapter describes how Birdie relates to her family, particularly her sister. From the time Birdie was born, she describes being close to her sister Cole, who is three years older. Cole is “cinnamon-skinned” and “curly-haired” (5). Birdie always saw Cole’s face as a reflection of her own. Only at the end of the chapter, when her mother comments that Birdie looks “Sicilian” (26), does she realize that her pale skin and straight dark hair make people think that she and her sister are not related.

Birdie and Cole share a secret language called Elemeno. The chapter introduces the rest of the family and the novel’s main characters, who all have some relation to the Black Power Movement in 1970s Boston. Birdie’s father Deck is a black intellectual who writes books on race theory, while her mother Sandy is a white grassroots activist who hosts meetings in their basement and hides radicals who are running from the FBI. There is thick racial tension between Birdie’s parents, partly because of their differing political philosophies, and at the end of the chapter, they separate.