Twelve-year-old May is living in a desolate situation with her grandmother, who is mourning the loss of May's mother, and her father, who is completely absent. May resents her new dangerous, run-down, low-income housing neighborhood and often picks fights and gets into trouble. But when May is caught graffiti-ing her least favorite teacher's classroom, she is faced with a choice: expulsion, or one-on-one summer school with the teacher she most detests. Begrudgingly, May chooses summer school, and she ultimately learns that her teacher has a secret past--and might just hold the key to answers no one else will give May about her mother.