Breaking all the rules : the 1890s. A medley for the fair : a time to start raggin' it ; My kind of town : hot nights in the city ; The making of the legend : a boy and a banjo ; Marching to a ragtime tune
The music makers play main street : the 1900s. Writing in ragtime ; Tin Pan Alley and All that jazz : footloose in "black bohemia" ; They all played ragtime : Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin : a case of plagiarism? ; The girls of ragtime and the cult of celebrity : murder, passion and honor
The dream that wouldn't die : the 1910s. Dancing in ragtime ; The censors and the erotic life ; Reporting in ragtime ; Dreaming of Treemonisha
After the rag : the finale. Little Mary and the little tramp : ragtime partners of the silent screen ; The rites of spring : the martyred saint of the ragtime era ; Ragtime in revival ; Echoes of the music : we're all still playing ragtime.