Intimate view of 100 years of American history seen through Isaac Pope, an African-American centenarian who's a spellbinding storyteller and unsung hero of war, the civil rights and workers' movements, and the tale of the nation's spirit, loss and love. Grandson of enslaved people, son of sharecroppers, he yearned toward the American Dream, never came near it, but spent decades helping others do so. His life shows tectonic shifts in some interactions between races that show the way forward.