In 1987, fourteen-year-old Junius Posey sets out on the cold Cambridge streets to find his brother’s killer in a cluster of low-income housing towers—prime drug-dealing territory. After commiting a murder to protect his friend, he finds himself without protection from retribution. His mother gives him fifty dollars and instructions to run, but Junius refuses to live a life in hiding. Instead, shocked by the violence that he’s created and determined to see its consequences through to their end, he returns to the towers to complete his original mission.

As Junius, his friend, two crews, and the police all move inexorably toward a final confrontation, a series of surprising events and shifting loyalties transform this day into a bloody turning point that none of them could have foreseen.