- Part numero uno is called "The Seventh Day."
- John Grimes wakes up on his birthday, a Saturday, with a bad feeling.
- He falls back to sleep, and when he wakes up his brother Roy is already in the kitchen fighting with his mother while their baby sister, Ruth, bangs on her highchair, and their other little sister, Sarah, just sits there staring.
- John hopes there will be something special for breakfast, but it's just oatmeal.
- Roy argues with their mother, who says that their father beats him because he loves him.
- Their mother assigns them chores to do before they can leave the house; John is to sweep and dust, and he's sad that his mother seems to have forgotten his birthday.
- At eleven o'clock John finishes his work and his mom calls him into the kitchen. Surprise, surprise – she hasn't forgotten. She gives him some change and tells him to use it to get something he thinks he wants for his birthday.
- John goes to Central Park and checks out the New York skyline in the snow, then runs down into the evil city.
- He sees rich white people, and even though his dad says that they are evil, John thinks that some have been nice to him.
- John heads for a movie theatre and watches a film about an evil woman. He thinks she's pretty awesome.
- When he gets home in the afternoon, his sister Sarah runs out of the house and into the drugstore. Some boys outside warn him that his brother is hurt.
- John goes inside the house and follows a trail of blood drops into the kitchen. Sarah comes in and tells him that Roy has been stabbed.
- In the living room, the kids' parents are taking care of Roy and their Aunt Florence is there worrying, too.
- John realizes pretty quickly that his brother is going to be okay, but that doesn't stop his dad from screaming at him for being gone all afternoon.
- Ruth cries, and John's mom tells him to go pick her up. The baby has a wet diaper, but instead of changing her, John just whispers into her ear that she should run away from home as soon as she's old enough.
- Back in the living room, John's dad is now starting in on his mom for letting Roy go out and get hurt. Aunt Florence defends her, saying Roy's got a mind of his own.
- Florence and her brother argue pretty spicily for a while, and when they're done he makes John come over and look at what the "white folks" did to Roy.
- John sees that Roy has, indeed, been cut, but that he's going to get out with a scar.
- Gabriel, the boys' father, insists that white people tried to cut Roy's throat; Florence and Elizabeth, their mother, remind him that Roy was doing some cutting himself during the fight.
- Dad's on a roll: he tells John to take Roy's wound as a warning, and then starts yelling at Elizabeth for not taking better care of their son.
- Finally, Gabriel slaps Elizabeth, and Roy gets up and threatens to kill his father if he ever slaps his mother again.
- Gabriel beats Roy with his belt in punishment, and Florence stops him.
- That evening, John goes to the church to open it up and get ready for the service.
- Elisha, the preacher's nephew, a few years older than John, knocks at the door while John is sweeping.
- Something gets into John and makes him sass Elisha until they end up wrestling in the church aisle.
- They clean for a while, and then Elisha asks John if he's thought about his soul. He tells him he should consider "the service of the Lord" as a life path. He encourages Johnny to pray that God will save him.
- When they finish cleaning Elisha sits down at the piano and plays a bit.
- Once again, a knock at the door: it's Sister McCandless and Sister Price.
- The two ladies praise Johnny for his faithfulness and for being the first one there that night. They comment that the other young people seem to be cooling off in their faith.
- The four churchgoers recall the time that Elisha's uncle (the pastor of the church) had brought him up in front of the entire congregation and made him pray for forgiveness for thinking sinful thoughts about a girl. Everyone seems to think that was a good move on the pastor's part.
- Sister McCandless wants to know if John's parents are coming, and when he says that his mom is tired she makes a snide remark. John hates her, but Sister Price defends his mom for working so hard to keep up with her kids. Point 1: Sister Price.
- Elisha plays a song on the piano and they all sing "This May Be the Last Time".
- John gives Sister McCandless a tambourine and sings along to keep them from bugging him.
- The door opens and in walk Gabriel, Elizabeth and Florence. John's shocked to see his aunt Florence because she had never come to the church before.