This is not how seventeen-year-old Gil imagined beginning his senior year -- on the subway, dressed in a tie and khakis, headed toward Manhattan instead of his old public school in Brooklyn. Augustin Prep may only be a borough away, but the exclusive private school feels like it's a different world from Gil's predominately Caribbean neighborhood in Brooklyn. And when a racist run-in with the school's golden boy ends in a fight that leaves only Gil suspended, Gil understands the truth about his new school -- Augustin may pay lip service to diversity, but that isn't the same as truly accepting him and the other Black students as equal. Using Sun Tzu's The Art of War as his guide, Gil wages his own clandestine war against the racist administration, parents, and students to ensure that their voices are finally heard. But the more enmeshed Gil becomes in Augustin's poilitics, the less time he has for his friends and family in Brooklyn -- and for the girl he's falling in love with. It's a war worth fighting, but at what cost?