Special Agent Will Trent was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta's overwhelmed foster care system. Determined to make sure no one feels as he did, he now has the highest clearance rate.

A hot-tempered father with a sordid past learns that his daughter has a rare illness and he doesn't have the resources to pay for treatment. He finds himself faced with a choice, return to life in the streets or continue on a path of faith.

Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers African-American, Latina and Caucasian teens, and organizes a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the prison. Participation in Stack's track team not only breaks down the racial divides between the girls, but puts them on a path to turn their lives around.

Set in a world in which a compulsory operation at sixteen wipes out physical differences and makes everyone pretty by conforming to an ideal standard of beauty.