The book opens by setting the stage for Angelou's primary task in this stage of life: raising her son, Guy, into maturity. The two of them have jsut moved to Sausalito, California where they live on a houseboat. Guy is a teenager who benefits from how much more available his mother is to him now that she has abandoned her theatrical pursuits for the time being. She recalls having Billy Holiday over one evening and becoming inspired to write.
Angelou moves with Guy to New York City where she takes some gigs in nightclubs. This transition is difficult, especially for Guy, who quickly becomes caught up in a gang, despite Angelou's best efforts to prevent it. She leads by example, however, and throws herself into the Civil Rights Movement. Angelou meets so many important people: James Baldwin, John Killens, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Godfrey Cambridge. Among a local writer's guild, Angelou throws herself into her writing, with Baldwin as her mentor. As her political work becomes more and more significant, she is asked to attend multiple functions and even to perform as a guest in a handful of shows.
In 1961 Angelou meets and marries Vusumzi Make who is a freedom fighter from South Africa. Although she adores his vocation, Angelou cannot make herself into his ideal wife. He demands more submission and service than she is comfortable offering. The family, with Guy, moves to London and then Cairo, but the marriage remains tenuous throughout this period. Vusumzi's work takes precedence over family life, forcing Angelou to assume a public face which she is happy to perform, but soon grows tired of assuming. When she learns of her husband's many indiscretions with other women and his out-of-control spending, Angelou takes a job as the assistant editor of the Arab Observer. When the marriage finally dissolves, Angelou and Guy move to Liberia where Guy attends college at the University of Ghana. He gets into an accident, prompting Angelou to move to campus and care for him during his recovery. Finally, he is healed, leaving Angelou free to pursue life on her, without placing Guys' needs above her dreams.
