Toney Fitzgerald stands in front of the class with a message. There's little poetry in making money, he says, and there's even less in poverty. In one hand he holds the hammer of reality and, in the other, the gauntlet of defiance. Mixing fiction, experience and teaching, he leads them through ruthless self-examination, preparing them to break through the Bitch barrier to the richer world beyond. Eventually, they face the most serious choice of their lives; either they will make the one, unbreakable, lifelong promise that will radically change the directions of their lives or they will remain forever in a state of self-induced helplessness. Not all make it.