A semi-autobiographical piece, this coming-of-age story follows the life of high school senior Oliver Priddy's journey through America's prison system and the irreversible choices he makes to survive. After a stint in reform school ends in murder when Oliver kills a vicious bully who brutally assaults him, the headstrong boy is sent to Pittsburgh's notorious Riverview Penitentiary (the mirror image of Western Penitentiary) with a life sentence. But even a lifer needs hope, and Oliver finds his salvation in academics. However, after writing a biting commentary in the lifers' newsletter, he is thrown into solitary confinement for his audacity and cut off from his supporters, his carefully plotted academic career - and the hope it brings - threatened. And without hope, a lifer has nothing.