Handsome Catholic schoolboy Oliver Priddy is spiraling on a downward path. A stint in reform school ends in murder when Oliver kills a boy who brutally assaults him there. Now he's on his way to Pittsburgh's notorious Riverview Penitentiary with a life sentence. But even a lifer needs hope, and Oliver finds his salvation in academics. He tutors in the prison's education center, enrolls in the University of Pittsburgh's prison campus, and joins the boxing team. And, because this is Riverview, he does all this with an improvised ice-pick hidden on his person. Capable though he is of navigating Riverview's tough environment, Oliver knows he needs help when he draws the attention of vicious sexual predator Fat Daddy Petaway. Oliver finds a defender in Champ, the most feared inmate in the institution, trading marijuana and, of all things, algebra tutoring for protection. Through his new found love of learning, Oliver builds himself an intellectual escape through college, gaining national recognition as a scholar and teacher. He even finds intimacy in the arms of an instructor, a lovely older woman who understands that Oliver's needs go beyond academic pursuits. Then, a conflict with a hard-nosed new warden threatens everything for which Oliver has worked so hard. Denied the academic opportunities that have become so meaningful to Oliver's growth, self-discovery and intellectual enlightenment, he stands to lose that most precious of prison commodities, hope.