Emma Johnston (a pseudonym) is an African American resident of Durham, North Carolina, whose son was brutally murdered in 2007. Combining the voices of Emma and her coauthor Simon Partner, a professor at Duke University, the book recounts the postwar history of one of the South's fastest-growing communities through the eyes of one of its most disadvantaged residents. In the process, the book attempts to shed light on the social and economic conditions that led to the murder of Emma's son, one of 25 to 30 people (many of them African American young men) who fall victim to gun violence each year in Durham.