Twelve-year-old Amari Peters waits in the principal’s office of Jefferson Academy after shoving another student. As the only Black scholarship student at Jefferson Academy, Amari has been subject to constant bullying, but today she’s finally snapped. Amari shoved one of her bullies when the girl joked that Amari’s older brother Quinton, who has been missing for several months, is dead. Quinton is a highly successful alumnus of Jefferson; he was an exceptional student and dazzled everyone with his intelligence and worked a mysterious but lucrative job before he vanished. Amari idolizes her brother yet finds herself lacking when she measures herself against his success.

Amari lives with her single mother (Mama) in the Rosewood housing projects, nicknamed “the ‘Wood.” Mama works long shifts at the hospital to support her family, and despairs that if Amari loses her scholarship at Jefferson Academy, Mama will not be able to give Amari the opportunity to broaden her horizons and have a promising future. Amari and Mama are very close, and both struggle to cope with Quinton’s disappearance. Despite Mama’s words, Amari feels uninterested in her future and can only focus on bringing Quinton home. She scours her brother’s email for clues to his whereabouts and receives a notification for a delivery from “Discreet Deliveries” to Amari Peters.