In mid-1970s Savannah, two bright but rebellious boys, Francis Doyle and Tim Sullivan, fight boredom, hormones and discipline-heavy teachers in their quest to find something meaningful beyond the walls of their parish school. Francis is an exceptional artist, whose imaginative forays into a fictional universe of good and evil fill his notebooks with comic book imagery and create a netherworld of superhero alter egos for the two boys. Subsequently, Francis and Tim create a secret comic book depicting themselves as superheroes and their teachers as arch villains. When the ultra-strict Sister Assumpta seizes their artwork one day, the boys embark upon an obsessed trail of revenge that ultimately changes their lives.