The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Diamond Boy. Little, Brown and Company, 2014. Kindle Version.

Patson lives with his father, Joseph, his sister, Grace, and his step-mother, Sylvia. Life is frequently unpleasant because Sylvia is not happy with their current financial situation. She thinks that her husband is not a real man because the currency he makes teaching is no longer viable in the economy. He believes this to be a noble profession and vocation. She wants to move by her brother James who is a wealthy man running diamond mines. Eventually, after Joseph finds a teaching job near James, the family moves there.

Getting to Uncle James's place is a dangerous trip. The family runs across people trying to illegally sell diamonds. When their driver abandons them, they get help from a man named Boubacar. Boubacar used to be a soldier, but he reformed his ways after he was part of a raid that killed his own family. He is now a bodyguard for a diamond buyer.

When the family gets to Uncle James’s compound, Sylvia is given a room in the main house. Other member of the family must sleep in a shed. Joseph and Patson end up working in the mines when the school Joseph was supposed to teach at closes. Patson is excited to find a girazi so that he can buy his family out of this situation and let his father teach again. His father is not successful at diamond mining and believes that this is because he must have angered his ancestral spirits. He is not made for this type of work. Patson finds two girazi. His father wants to sell them and leave, but this is not enough for Patson because he wants wealth. Finally, he finds a third stone.

Eventually, the army comes and takes over the mines. Commander Jesus is in power, and he is a ruthless man. He gets mad at Patson for not wanting to be there, and he tells the boy to leave. As he is leaving, Patson triggers a landmine and loses a leg. It takes him awhile to recover, and he is in severe pain for most of the novel. He is not aware that the woman who helps patch him up also sews his girazi into his stump

Commander Jesus has learned that Patson has three valuable girazi and seeks him out, following him all the way to South Africa. Meanwhile, a man named Determine has taken Grace to South Africa, probably to sell her into slavery. Patson engages the help of Boubacar. Boubacar helps Patson get to South Africa. This requires a treacherous journey across a wild river and a Wild Game Preserve. Patson wants to give up many times. When they are unable to get to Grace on a train, she manages her own escape, and they are all reunited. At this point, Patson’s leg is treated by new doctors who discover his stones there. Commander Jesus is arrested when he tries to get the stones by kidnapping the boy. Patson and Grace go to live with Boubacar. By the end of the novel, Patson has come to terms with his lost leg and has decided to use his wealth for good purposes.