It would be easy for fourteen-year-old Henryk Jonasz to tell the truth if nothing ever happened to him. But his first year in high school begins with a literal bang: punch-happy thugs take offense when he comes to the defense of a special-needs student.
Henryk finds himself providing adjusted versions of the truth as he navigates threats from the gang, the murder of a local neo-Nazi, and a mendacious school administrator. He is aided by his rebellious older brother, a few reasonable adults, and his best friends, Melantha, a girl who identifies herself as Aspie, and Hank, an aspiring journalist who is struggling to write a story that won’t lead to Henryk’s early demise.