Just blocks away from the White House, the staff of Ulysses S. Grant Senior High School wages what many fear is a losing battle in the war on poverty, drugs, and despair. The school building itself is a fading monument to an educational system that hasn't kept pace with the needs of the community. Guns and knives are as commonplace as notebooks and pens, security guards roam the halls, and adolescent drug dealers market their merchandise just outside the doors.

A shocking incident in the principal's office sets off a police investigation that reveals more truths than some at Grant High may wish to confront.

We follow the tangled lives of these brave and memorable characters: Heck Jasper, the dedicated black principal of twenty-five years who is becoming increasingly discouraged by the hopelessness he sees among his colleagues and neighbors; Cirri James, a bright and eager student who is forced by her mother's drug addiction to take charge of her younger brother and sister; and Danny Mitchell, the white English teacher who commutes from the suburbs and struggles not to lose her sense of mission about teaching.