It’s the spring of 1974, and Jimmy McPherson has made a mistake. One bad grade is going to keep him from graduating from Northeastern University.
Jimmy makes a deal with his advisor: write a compelling paper about a pressing social issue, and he’ll earn his degree. Jimmy breathes a sigh of relief; but what to write about? Looking around at the racial tension in Boston, he comes up with a crazy idea: using his skills as a theater make-up artist, Jimmy will travel around America in his yellow Chevy Vega, disguised as a young Black man.
Having grown up white in a homogenous New England suburb, Jimmy finds himself constantly surprised and dismayed by the real challenges faced by Black people in America, and learns far more than he would have from any college course.