Lafeyette and Pharoah are two young children living in a housing complex in Chicago. Alex Kotlowitz, a journalist, follows their stories from the year 1987 to 1989.
Pharoah is nine years old, and Lafeyette is twelve. The two live in an establishment in the Henry Horner Homes complex, commonly referred to as part of the ghetto. The two boys struggle with life as they know it. Money is not easy to come by, and they often watch their friends be killed by those who want things from them, both children and adults alike.
LaJoe Rivers is their mother, and she has lived in her home their for a long time. When Horner Homes were first built in the 1950's they were a beam of light for the city of Chicago. The residents there fought for better communities and better schools. However, quickly, things started to go downhill.
LaJoe meets Paul Rivers when she is just fourteen years old, and she becomes pregnant with the older siblings of Pharoah and Lafeyette. She soon discovers that her new husband is addicted to drugs, and tries to get him to stop. He does not.
She then has more children with him, including the two previously mentioned. As Pharoah and Lafeyette are the youngest, she puts all of her attention on them, hoping that they will be the ones in the family to escape the ghetto when they grow older.
In 1987, there is much violence in the community, including several shootings. The two boys become emotionally scarred for life, Pharoah acquiring a stutter, and Lafeyette learning to hide his unhealthy emotions.
The boys seek refuge in other people, such as Rickey, but they also turn out to be bad influences. They quickly learn that in the ghetto there is nowhere that you can truly be safe from crime. Lafeyette is arrested for breaking into a truck.
The book ends in an uncertain sort of way, leaving readers to infer what happens. This illustrates the level of uncertainty that the boys had to face, but also acts as a shimmer of hope that one day, things like this might end.
