4 different kids, 4 different ages, 4 different lifestyles, but there is one thing they all have in common: A situation they want to escape from. Max Connor is 14 years old. At school, he's a bully. At his trailer park, poverty-stricken home, he's a victim of an alcoholic mother and an ever-worsening abusive father. Diane Rockway is the 15 year old daughter of her upper class political conservative father and lawyer mother. She is voted most popular at school until she winds up accidently pregnant. James Doe is a 10 year old orphan who has spent his life bouncing from one foster care to the next, until his rebellious personality gets him transferred to a group home for boys. Zoe Summers, 12 years old, lives with her father and two siblings. At school, though smart, she is deemed the weird girl. At home, she is responsible for all the things her mother once was, but she can't meet all the father's expectations, just like her mother couldn't, nor does she want to any longer. Alone, they are stuck and helpless in being minors without rights, but when all their paths cross one day, their desperate needs outweigh their differences, and they become the most unexpected of friends when they come across an abandoned 1800's schoolhouse.