The first day of school in September, 1959 finds the state of Virginia’s Arlington County public schools integrated for the first time.  That is to say that three schools, formerly all-white, one elementary, one junior high and one high school, have allowed a select few Negro students to attend. Wynn Horry Junior, known as Junior, is one of the six Negro students going to Arlington High and he has already become friends with Clifford Peterson, the white son of an upper-middle-class State Department family living in North Arlington near the high school. Cliff’s mother, Claire Peterson had written a letter of reference for Junior to attend the school because of her connection to Junior’s mother, Julia Mae Horry. Junior, like Cliff, is a smart, articulate young man who does not necessarily fit the notion of how others might see him.

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Junior and Cliff have known each other since the summer of 1958 when the Peterson family first returned to the United States after a long tour abroad and Junior began cutting their grass.  The friendship that has developed between the two teens is more than most might be able to handle and they keep their friendship private. But, during the dawn of the Space Race and push for Civil Rights while many eyes are pinned to the sky, others are tired of being pinned down in America and are beginning to launch the campaign for more space where they have always been denied free movement.

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As they grow closer during this time of change in America, both Junior and Cliff discover themselves and learn about limitations.   One grows in ways that he had not imagined while the other emerges into the world that he was born to although not the way his world would expect him to take his place in it.  In this new world, their families, friends and hopes and dreams collide as everyone is reaching for the stars and seeing what lies beyond the borders they have known, for the first time.