Jacob Rathbone is a 13-year-old boy with a fear of the dark who lives with his stepfather, Davis and his mother, Isabel, who is frustrated with her son’s frequent Night terror. After being discovered dancing while Cross-dressing in his late grandmother’s dress, Jacob is sent away to a boarding school in the wilderness governed by the eccentric Dr. and Mrs. Sherman. He meets his classmates: social outcasts like a disfigured burn survivor, Phil; Tourette syndrome sufferer, Frederic; Autism Elwood Ramsay; and manipulative Christine Holcomb. Their classes are administered under Dr. Sherman’s strict regime that consists of a Bible Studies curriculum and School corporal punishment.