Forty years old, stuck in Staten Island and married to a sweet but oblivious husband with kids that largely ignore her, Lisa Spinelli spends her days teaching Kindergarten with growing numbness. Her one reprieve is a nighttime poetry class across the bay in Lower Manhattan. When she discovers that a five-year-old in her class may be a poetic prodigy, Lisa becomes fascinated--then obsessed, as she struggles to protect him from neglectful parents and a plagiarizing babysitter. She soon finds herself risking her career, family and freedom to nurture his artistic promise.