12-year-old Fresh is a runner in Brooklyn, carrying heroin for the charismatic Esteban and crack for local dealers. And yet he makes it a point of honor to go to school so as not to disappoint his Aunt Frances, who provides a roof for him and his eleven cousins. In secret, he often goes up to Washington Square where his father, a burned-out genius fallen on hard times, plays chess and teaches his son the rudiments of strategy and analysis. Fresh makes full use of his father's teaching and his own survival instinct when events spin out of control making his life a vicious trap.