Fifteen-year-old Justin Lyle does not see in himself the qualities he admires in heroes like his paternal grandfather, awarded a medal of honor during World War II, or in the fictional heroes of television and comic books. Growing up in the declining manufacturing town of East Liberty, New York beset by unemployment, rising crime, and an influx of drugs, and encircled by struggling dairy farms Justin feels isolated and decidedly unheroic. These feelings are intensified by his parents divorce, his longing for an unattainable girl, and the death, eight years previous but still a potent...