Trevor Garfield (SAMUEL L. JACKSON), a dedicated Brooklyn high-school science teacher, struggled to work within a system where the pursuit of education sometimes took a back seat to the ongoing battle merely to stay alive. He watched his school being transformed into a war zone, his pupils split into camps — the few eager to learn increasingly outnumbered by those angry at a world that did not include them. Those students began to answer questions with violence.

Working in this siege state, Trevor found his commitment stretched beyond the limits of reason. When he refused to pass one of his volatile and sociopathic pupils, the student retaliated by stabbing Trevor in the back, leaving him on the brink of death.

One year later, his wounds scarred and his spirit shaken, Trevor returns to teach in a Los Angeles school and finds himself in the same world of amorality and violence he had hoped to leave behind. To his new colleagues, Dave Childress (JOHN HEARD), a victim of teacher burn-out, and Ellen Henry (KELLY ROWAN), a fresh and hopeful instructor, he is both a reluctant hero and an inspiring enigma. To most of his new students, he is a cipher to be disregarded.

But Trevor’s dedication has been tainted with something darker — he finds himself challenged by school administrators rendered impotent by their fear of possible litigation and confronted by a group of desperate students who would rather fight than learn. And now, no one is quite sure just how far this transformed man will go.