Yessenia Lopez—a 16-year-old, wheelchair-bound Puerto Rican girl from inner city Chicago—arrives at ILLC from juvie after violently assaulting her classmate in school. With absent parents and a recently deceased guardian (Tía Nene), she is explosive and struggles to get along with her peers. However, she develops friendships with a few of her roommates and caring adult employees, like Joanne and Jimmie. Though she hates ILLC and finds it to be demeaning, she has nowhere else to go.

Although Joanne Madsen is a wealthy white woman from Chicago’s North Side—paid handsomely by the Chicago Transit Authority for the bus accident which left her paralyzed—she decides to work at ILLC as a data-entry clerk to keep herself occupied. There, she learns about the young patients and sees how the institution are mistreats them. She starts a relationship with her coworker, Ricky, and together they strive to improve the quality of care for the youth.

Ricky is a large and handsome employee at ILLC, whose main role is to drive the patients around and to remove students from classrooms when they are being disruptive. He has a disabled aunt, and he empathizes with the struggles of the mostly poor adolescents from rough neighborhoods like him. His romantic involvement with Joanne further exposes him to the cruel inequities at ILLC. He begins to stand up for the juvenile patients who other ILLC workers abuse, even going out of his way to bring them food when they are malnourished.

Michelle Volkmann is a recruiter for Whitney-Palm, a private company that runs IILC. She recruits patients from homeless shelters, churches, and other areas with desperate populations. To boost her commission, she often bends rules or distorts the truth. Her professional ambition to become a corporate manager motivates her, and she barely cares about the patients’ wellbeing. However, as she learns more about the state of ILLC during her site visits, she questions her role with Whitney-Palm.

Jimmie Kendrick is a physically imposing woman from South Chicago, is a failed singer and former homeless woman who works at ILLC. She—like many of the young patients she oversees—has had a rough upbringing, so she strives to take good care of them. In various situations, she physically defends the patients from other houseparents who are more abusive and aggressive in their tactics. She grows extremely close to many of the patients, including Mia and Teddy, but particularly Yessenia, who she decides to eventually adopt.

Mia Oviedo and Teddy Dobbs are a disabled couple at ILLC. Shy Mia is nearly blind, unable to push her chair, and is dependent on Teddy. Teddy, on the other hand, is turning 22 and has nearly aged out of the program. He is popular and cracks jokes in class, often agitating the caregivers. When an ILLC employee sexually abuses Mia, she becomes depressed and distant.

An ILLC employee leaves Teddy unattended in a hot shower, and he falls, sustaining fatal burns. Teddy’s death is the catalyst that unites the ILLC family to finally speak out and demand better treatment. Yessenia chains herself to a tree with a sign declaring the inhumane conditions at ILLC, spurring a larger protest with news coverage. The event exposes Whitney-Palm’s lack of funding and proper care at ILLC, and the private company is forced to improve the sites for youth.

Eventually, Michelle, disillusioned, quits her job, and ILLC fires Joanne for her role in Yessenia’s protest. Mia becomes involved in social justice leadership training with a disabled advocacy group. Jimmie and Ricky continue working at ILLC with a new, committed team. Yessenia attempts to run away from ILLC before returning with a chance to live with Jimmie, her friend and role model. Though imperfect, each character learns how to move forward, despite their limitations, with the help of their community and friends.