After being abandoned by his father, Langston Holiday is forced to move with his no-nonsense mother into the gritty public housing projects of Poindexter Village, better known as 'The Vil'. His mother is determined to make a man of him and does a pretty good job - by the end of his senior year, Langston is one of the best high-school basketball players in the nation. That's when he makes the biggest decision in his life - to forgo college and enter the professional ranks.