At 6'3", 250 lbs, 14 year-old Owen Nichols is big enough to make adult hackles rise before he ever opens his mouth. Locked in a war-of-wills with his parents, he serves his summer vacation like a prison sentence with nothing to look forward to but the start of high school and the horrors he knows await him there. When his parents start the July 4th holiday by punishing him with a list of chores than need to be done in the blistering heat, Owen turns his gaze inward to fend off the monotony and discomfort. What he finds is a catalog of attempts by every adult and kid he knows to tear him down, to stomp the best of him out and leave it in the dirt. His younger brother Dean pops in and out to gloat; his father adds chores as the day goes on and criticizes his work, beer in hand. Forced into being a third-wheel to Dean and a friend at the local fireworks celebration that night, Owen is no less isolated among kids his own age than he was at home. He is the piece that doesn't fit the puzzle, no matter how hard it's pressed. When an encounter with a bully pushes him past his breaking point, he must decide once and for all who he is and who he wants to be--at home, at school, and beyond.