In the near future, Journalist Matt Disher travels across the United States–with an added stop in Tokyo–to investigate the major players in a controversy surrounding a new pharmaceutical named Nubianite. Although the drug was originally intended to give non-Black people the opportunity to be Black for 24 to 48 hours, depending on the dosage taken, a small percentage of the population are experiencing a side-effect where they become Black permanently. His first stop is in Putnam County, Georgia, to meet with Fallan Pierce. Pierce is the CEO of the company distributing Nubianite. Despite the controversy surrounding her creation, she maintains that no legal action can be pursued against her due to the waivers each user signed. In Little Rock, Arkansas, Disher meets with Pierce's assistant, Ja'Nyla Lovington, who assures him that Pierce is a respectable person who treated her well and gave her employment when nobody else would. In Washington D.C., Disher speaks to Representative Huffington Spence-Shilling II, who is outraged because his son, Trey, was one of the small percentage of people who became permanently Black. The Congressman plans on pursuing vicious legal action against Pierce. Then, Disher speaks with Trey in an unnamed urban location, who confesses that the difficulty of being Black constantly–being targeted by white people, facing discrimination at every turn, feeling unsafe–has made him join in his father's struggle to prosecute Pierce. In Tokyo, Disher meets with two young scientists, Ameena Wang and DeMonterrius Jackson, who helped Pierce develop Nubianite. They explain the science behind the drug and walk Disher through the various stages of R&D, claiming that everything Pierce did was legal and consensual. Finally, Disher arrives in Nashville, Tennessee, where Representative Spence-Shilling II speaks to an angry crowd of mainly Black protestors about Pierce's supposed crimes. From a hotel room, Disher and Pierce look down on the riots. Once the rebellion becomes violence, Pierce calls the police. She comments on the vicious nature of "some people" and hopes that the authorities won't let that "color" their nature, suggesting her racist view on the situation.