Pivotal Times is the third novel in the series begun with The Ruin and The Bee Tree. Cliff Kelly, Angelina Martinez and Hector Rodriguez are in high school. Cliff and Hector are freshmen at Montezuma County High School in Cortez. Angelina, now a sophomore, joins them as a transfer from Mancos in order to take advantage of the offerings of the much larger school. Cliff and his new friends in the freshman class immediately encounter freshman initiation, which Cliff sees as school sanctioned bullying. He sets about to rally the class to stand up to the upperclassmen and fight for its abolishment. Using the strength found in his year of solitude in "The Ruin" and the extra year of maturity the "timeout" has provided him, Cliff becomes a leader in his freshman class and the class elects him to the student council where he has a voice. The fast moving novel sees Cliff become a peacemaker among a contentious, racially diverse student body in the mid 1950s among a time of social change in America. Angelina immediately becomes involved with a group of musicians where her talent with the classical guitar can shine while at the same time her athletic abilities are put to the test by a physical education teacher with an ambition to make girl's sports recognized in a system where girls are relegated to pep clubs and the rally squad.