Carson Phillips is at the bottom of the food chain in a high school filled with people he hates, stuck living with his depressed single mother in a small-minded town at the corner of nothing and nowhere. He has just one goal: escape to Northwestern University and a career as a hard-hitting journalist. His guidance counselor tells him that he needs to bolster his application by creating a literary magazine. Which means he needs submissions. From other students. Carson resorts to the only thing he can think of: blackmail.