Bringing his teenage son on a camping trip with an old friend and his friend's son, lawyer David Sloane embarks on a legal rescue mission when the boys are caught vandalizing a general store and sentenced to six months in a detention camp with ties to a corrupt judge.

Fifteen-year-old fast-talking Shreve is thriving in juvenile detention until he is assigned a strangely silent and vulnerable new cellmate, Jack, who just might have superpowers and who attracts the attention both of the cellblock bullies and sinister Mr. Quincrux.