Ebony-Grace Norfleet Freeman is going into seventh grade. She’s from Huntsville, Alabama, where she lives with Momma (her mom) and Granddaddy (her mom’s father—her grandpa). Still, she’s on an airplane to New York City—or, as she calls it, “No Joke City”—to spend a week with her dad.

Ebony-Grace has a robust imagination—Grandaddy calls it “imagination location”—and she pretends she’s a space officer (Space Cadet E-Grace Starfleet) saving Captain Fleet (a reference to the Star Trek franchise, which began as a 1960s TV show) while on the Mothership Uhura (Uhura is the name of the Black communications officer, played by Nichelle Nichols, on Star Trek, and it means “freedom”).

Captain Fleet is heroic, so the Sonic King and his wicked “minions,” the Funkazoids, harass him throughout Planet Boom Box. The names and places come from Granddaddy’s stories. Momma wants her dad to stop filling her daughter’s head with comic books and “crazy” science fiction tales. They’re not helpful for someone about to start middle school.

A flight attendant asks Ebony-Grace if she’s feeling okay, and she’s not: She throws up Momma’s breakfast in a barf bag. Looking out the window, she sees New York City.