Serving a six-month sentence at a detention center for stealing hood ornaments off cars, Sura befriends his bunkmate, the vulnerable Coly Jo. Both have come to a crossroads early in life. Sura struggles with his peers, his native restlessness, and a patronizing staff psychologist, while Coly Jo is antagonized by bullying inmates and unsympathetic administrators. Sura watches Coly Jo gradually lose himself to the pressures and predators of the center and understands that he must draw on his own nascent strengths and values in order to emerge from the place with his spirit intact. Adam Rapp's hypnotic prose gives life to a group of adolescents who cannot be dismissed merely as petty criminals or juvenile offenders, but accepted as young adults who must discover strength and understanding without adult guidance if they wish to survive in detention as well as in the society beyond the walls of “the Stock." Adam Rapp crafts a multitude of fascinating characters, none more memorable than Sura, whose startlingly original voice and subtle redemption is as realistic as it is unforgettable.