Clay is a coming-of-age story that also chronicles a coming to awareness at a time of social, racial, and environmental unease. Twelve-year-old Luke and an older boy, Jimmy, become involved with a longstanding but threatened Black community located near their predominantly white enclave at the edges of New York City in the 1970s. The overt threats come from developers (including Jimmy's father) and from a nearby toxic landfill—and Luke gradually learns how much these menaces are intertwined and how they are linked to his family and community. Over one eventful summer that moves toward crisis and confrontation, Luke learns deeper truths about his seemingly idyllic town and the wider world beyond it.