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Elwood Curtis’s college dream comes crashing down on a two-lane Florida highway. Carrying the weight of an innocent mistake, he is sentenced to the afterlife at Nickel Academy, a brutal reform school deeply rooted in the Jim Crow South. He meets another protégé, Turner, who has seen it all. Two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner offers basic survival advice, Elwood stays true to his optimistic worldview. With the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement as their backdrop, the lives of Elwood and Turner seem far removed from the polished speeches of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood fights to retain his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.