Bilal Cunningham has grown up in Richmond, Virginia's meanest projects. His mother offers him little love but takes whatever cash Bilal can make to feed her alcohol-fueled life and the men she shares her bed with. Instead of drugs and drink, Bilal devours Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and the works of other poets, which he can recite verbatim. But when his beloved little brother, Keon, is killed in a shoot-out, Bilal’s straitlaced life goes awry.

Vengeance lands Bilal in jail for seven years, and when he comes out he’s drawn to the streets. By becoming Richmond's top cocaine kingpin, Bilal has all the money he could ever want, though he knows to steer clear of the powder himself. But sexy Starr, the girl he’s loved since childhood, can’t quite keep clean. Their tumultuous relationship gets even rockier when Starr involves herself with the men who may have been responsible for Keon’s death. As friends and foes alike drop dead in the fallout, a shocking truth is revealed, and Bilal's last shred of innocence may be lost forever.