Elwood Curtis lives in Tallahassee, Florida with his grandmother and is about to attend the local college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s, an innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to confinement at the Nickel reform school, which provides "physical, intellectual, and moral education," so that the juvenile offenders under its care can become "honest and upright citizens."

In reality, it is a hellhole: the sadistic staff physically and sexually abuse the students, corrupt officials and locals steal the food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear. Elwood is deeply rooted in the ideas of Dr. Martin Luther King - "Throw us in jail, and we will still love you." His friend Turner believes that Elwood is more than naive and that the only way to survive is to have a plan and avoid trouble.

Based on a true story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and destroyed the lives of thousands of children, leaving its marks on them even to this day, the book is a shocking, compelling narrative by an outstanding American novelist.