Welcome to the Preston School of Industry. Sixteen-year-old orphan William Thomas is taking his very first stagecoach ride; but he is not enjoying it; he is on his way to a boy's prison. His crime? Only vagrancy. In 1897, however, that offense carried a punishment with a minimum sentence of thirty months. Yet, the Preston School of Industry also housed boys guilty of much more serious crimes. Wellspring of reform, or a catchbasin for punishment? School of industry, or training ground for more serious crimes? What effect will this incarceration have on his future, if he survives?