Lanier maintains that a racist white police officer named Nick Lawson killed the four black youths. Now that Jackie has arrived with the intent to reconcile the past and present, Lanier thinks he has a chance to avenge his cousin’s death. Lanier explains that those responsible for the murders have not met justice, as no one ever reported the deaths.

Jackie learns that Lanier is not only Curtis’s cousin, but that Curtis died-along with three others-in the meat freezer of her grandfather’s store during the Watts riots. Lanier loves his neighborhood, despite its rough reputation. Jackie soon meets James Lanier, a young black man working at the Marcus Garvey Community Center in Crenshaw. She finally agrees to track down Curtis, not knowing that doing so will unwittingly uncover Frank’s secret past: Curtis is Frank’s illegitimate son. However, she feels guilty for having grown apart from her grandfather and wants to honor him in some way. Jackie doesn’t want to get involved in finding Curtis-she's preoccupied with her relationship and with the prospect of a new position in a high-profile downtown law firm. Jackie must also reconcile the $38,000 in cash Frank has stored in his closet.

When she visits her aunt Lois one day, she’s tasked with identifying Curtis Martindale, the man whom Frank has left his now defunct store to. Her grandfather, Frank Sakai, has recently passed. Jackie is a Japanese-American woman in her last semester of law school. After a Prologue that explains the downfall of Angeles Mesa, an old neighborhood in Los Angeles near the Crenshaw district, the narrative introduces the protagonist, Jackie Ishida.

Southland by Nina Revoyr