Summary

The story opens on Wednesday, February 18, 1931 in an unnamed Michigan town when Robert Smith, an insurance agent with North Carolina Mutual Life, stands on the roof of Mercy Hospital in blue silk wings intending to fly from the roof across Lake Superior. Two days earlier, he had tacked a note on the door of his yellow house that said, “At 3:00 p.m. On Wednesday the 18th of February, 1931, I will take off from Mercy and fly away on my own wings. Please forgive me. I loved you all. (signed) Robert Smith, Ins. agent” (chap. 1, pg. 3).

Smith's show draws a crowd of around fifty local African-Americans, and some members of the hospital staff come outside to see why there is a gathering of people in front of the hospital. The hospital is at the end of a street called Mains Avenue by the post office, but...