Ralph Walker, Paul Rice's high school friend and locker partner for four years, suddenly becomes a suicide statistic years after graduation. Paul doesn't believe it. He knew Ralph could be moody and sometimes quirky at times, but never to the point of taking his own life. Celia Walker, Ralph's older sister doesn't believe it either and remembers Paul from high school vaguely, she being a senior at the time and he a freshman. Celia decides to look Paul up and they share their doubts, so much so that she wants Paul to look into it. Paul does and he finds racial hatred very much alive and well within the family that Walker was going to marry into.