Pigeon English, set in London, follows the story of Harri Opoku, an eleven-year-old immigrant from Ghana who lives in a crime-ridden council estate (council estates are the equivalent of public housing in the U.S.). The text integrates commentary from the perspective of Harri's "special pigeon," a semi-omniscient narrator who takes on a role similar to a guardian angel.
Pigeon English is organized into five segments, each narrating a different month in a single year of Harri's life, from March to July. Each section opens with an icon that is relevant to the section: for example, the chapter "April," accompanied by the image of a fingerprint, discusses how Auntie Sonia burned off her fingerprints to evade deportation, and Harri and Dean also search for the killer's fingerprints by the river.
The novel opens with the image of a crime scene. Harri and his friend Jordan stand outside Chicken Joe's, a local fast-food restaurant where a Year 11 boy was murdered. Harri becomes fixated on the boy's death and enlists his friend Dean to help him uncover the boy's murderer. As Harri and Dean reenact detective procedurals, the Dell Farm Crew, the main gang at Harri's school, offers Harri a chance to join their ranks. The gang assigns Harri two "missions," both of which he fails: to pull the fire alarm during school and to stay put while the gang robs Mr. Frimpong, an elderly man at Harri's church. Unable to stand the violence, Harri runs away, making him the Crew's enemy. Harri's sister, Lydia, is also enlisted to help the Dell Farm Crew when her friend Miquita asks her to bleach a bag of blood-soaked clothing. Lydia ends her friendship with Miquita after Miquita burns her, tries to kill their mutual friend, and sexually assaults Harri. Additionally, Harri and Dean actually come close to solving the murder when they find the dead boy's wallet and take Killa's fingerprints, making them targets for the Dell Farm Crew.
Despite Harri's proximity to violence and crime, he enjoys many essential childhood experiences, like dating a girl (Poppy Morgan), learning fascinating facts about science, and spending quality time with his family. However, Harri's friend, Jordan, pressures Harri into acts of vandalism each time they play together. When Mamma catches Jordan and Harri throwing rocks at buses, she forbids Harri from seeing Jordan, making them enemies. As retribution, Harri shows off the remote control car Auntie Sonia gave him, refusing to give Jordan a turn. Seemingly for this reason, Jordan stabs Harri with his "war knife," leaving him to die in the stairwell of their apartment complex, with only the pigeon to witness his death.
