Content Warning: This section includes incidents of violence, death, police brutality, and systemic racism.

Noah and his friend Walt—high school juniors—learn that they have not made the baseball team once again. Noah wants to give up, but Walt is determined to make the team next year. He proclaims that others must now call him by the name “Swing,” after Benny Goodman. Noah is unfamiliar with Goodman, so Walt/Swing plays jazz for Noah, who attempts to “understand” it. He recalls how Walt/Swing has been obsessed with baseball and jazz since third grade despite not having any athletic talent, unlike his brother, Moses. Moses is currently serving with the military in Afghanistan, but Noah learns he will soon be discharged. The boys are eager for Moses’s return, certain he will teach them how to be “cool.”

Noah has a crush on their friend Sam, but she is dating a boy named Cruz. Noah wants to confess his feelings to her, having tried to find the nerve to do so for years. Walt/Swing suggests they visit his cousin, Floyd, for advice. Noah has spent years drawing and writing poems, both of which he keeps a secret from everyone except his parents and Walt/Swing.