Marshall Benzler has a normal life in rural Ohio, enjoying the usual pursuits of a seventh grader. When faced with his own father's suicide, Benzler tries to hang on as the world around him crumbles. Benzler's free fall lands him in Wilson Psychiatric Hospital, the backdrop for Benzler's continued struggle to find a way through his tragic life. At every corner there is an obstacle, and he repeatedly fails the tests given him. Finally, authorities remove him from the hospital and he has one more chance to set his life straight. He returns to find his world is no longer the same. He is shunned by his Junior High classmates. Many of his previous friends have disowned him; others are extremely wary of him. Expelled from school, brawling with his mother, ostracized by his friends, he has nowhere else to turn. Only an unlikely miracle can save him from the same fate as his father.