Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early twenties, but never quite forgotten. Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend travels the world as an assistant to a famous singer. The story moves from London to West Africa, where diaspora tourists travel back in time to find their roots, young men risk their lives to escape into a different future, the women dance just like Tracey, and the origins of a profound inequality are not a matter of distant history, but a present dance to the music of time.