In 1977, Piper Dellums (Shadia Simmons) is a black girl who lives in Washington, D.C. with her father, Congressman Ron Dellums (Carl Lumbly), an outspoken opponent of the South African apartheid system and the oppression of black South Africans, her mother Roscoe Dellums (Penny Johnson Jerald), and two younger twin brothers, Brandon (Anthony Burnett) and Erik Dellums (Travis Davis). Piper, who has been taking an interest in the different nations of Africa, begs her parents to host an African exchange student.