Firstborn Walker is a book worm who dreams of attending one of America's most competitive universities. When his best friend is shot through the forehead with a hollow tip bullet, his desire to flee the mean streets only intensifies. Unemployed, he turns to the only person who can help him secure the money he'll need to supplement his scholarship, a childhood friend known as "Drama." Drama is a charismatic, ultra-violent block hog, an East Oakland crack dealer who makes his living with a triple beam scale and an Uzi submachine gun. So, Firstborn becomes a member of the Black Christmas Mob. Now the community college valedictorian must struggle to survive in a game laced with gold diggers, contract killers, hard hitters, marks, knocks, snitches and infiltrators; a world where witness tampering, blinding violence, safehouses, and a relentless cop named "the Hawk" become his new reality.