Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school's varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.

To escape the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, twelve-year-old Annie and her brother emigrate to New York City where they join their older sister as servants, earning money to bring the rest of their family to America, where they discover that both food and hardships abound.

In 1863, twelve-year-old Danny and his older sister Kathleen arrive in New York City to start a new life, but they soon find themselves navigating through the same prejudices and struggles they experienced in Ireland.