Done in poetic verses, the story begins with images of a young Coretta and her siblings walking the 5 miles to the nearest colored school. It quickly moves into her late teens and early twenties as Coretta takes on a leadership role as wife and partner to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and life within the civil rights movement. Accompanied with paintings by Kadir Nelson, the imagery helps the reader to capture the spirit of her character, and her struggles as she fought peacefully for a free world.