This isn't a story about anything new. It's about the oldest thing in the world. It's about love.

Tristan, a sixteen-year-old chess genius, lives with his Trinidadian aunt in a rapidly changing section of Brooklyn and uses his talent to earn money for his hustling cousin, Marcus. His world is turned upside-down when Izzy, a bright aspiring doctor raised on the Lower East Side, moves to the neighbourhood with her family, the first white family to settle on the block. A passionate romance springs up between the two, but they're soon swept up in a series of escalating misfortunes: violent conflict between Marcus and Izzy's twin brother; a twisted scheme of romantic deception devised by Izzy's best friend, Brianna; and a secret that tests the bond of family loyalty and forces them to face impossible decisions.