I Want My Darn Skates is about the life of Samantha Lewis from about the age of 9 years old. She doesn't graduate because she marries and becomes pregnant. She enters the Air Force, becomes a commissioned officer, and is retired early. She eventually gets back to work before having another child. Her brother, Josh, moves in on her mother and begins to sell drugs. Samantha knows this brother is selling drugs because she is buying drugs from him. Another brother, Rufus, becomes part of an unsuccessful marriage and ends up on crack cocaine and living on the streets. Samantha is having seizures due to the tremendous amount of stress she is under.

She is bickering with her siblings, and she is having trouble in her marriage. She loses her driver's license and she loses her job. She cries out to God. God tells her that what she is going through sounds like a great story.