What if you could have the most incredible life you imagine for yourself, but you had to give up everything in your current life? Would you do it? Teenagers are vanishing from Lakeview, Michigan, specifically some of Lakeview's juvenile criminals. Kids commit crimes and go to jail...but they never return home. Story Black, a brilliant fifteen-year-old, has heard that these kids are sent to a very special school--and then college. Paying the bill for everything is Lakeview's newest citizen, Charlotte Barnaby, a former school principal who has won the largest lottery jackpot in history. Story Black plans to be next. Char plans an elaborate scheme she calls The Convincing Hour, designed to persuade Story's mother, Patty, to let her leave. But Patty Black, a meth user with a genius IQ, sees through Char's deception and threatens to destroy everything Char has built, not caring if she brings down all of Lakeview and her own daughter.