"The Sum of All: A Thousand Parts" focuses on fate and freedom, nature and nurture, cause and effect, individualism and community. When the life of Kweeta, a girl adopted from Africa, is suddenly disrupted by a senseless accident, she believes it is fate as the event begins to destroy her. But her experiences in a juvenile treatment center lead her on a quest through college and a position with the Peace Corps where she travels and discovers a person is a thousand parts, formed by people, places and events, constantly being and becoming, always and not. In her freedom to be and do, her actions have unpredictable and sometimes deadly consequences as she solves a murder through soul travel, and unexpectedly ignite a civil war in America.