In 1889, the Boston Farm School didn't accept boys with any sort of criminal record. Which made it the perfect hiding place for two boys who accidentally killed someone.

Charles has been living alone on the streets of Boston for the last two of his twelve years. Aidan's mom can't stay sober enough to keep her job. When the boys team up, Charles teaches Aidan the art of rolling drunks in the saloon and brothel district, and life starts to look up--until a robbery goes horribly wrong one night and they need to leave the city or risk arrest. When the boys con their way into The Boston Farm School--located on an island one mile out in Boston Harbor--they think they've cheated fate. But the Superintendent is obsessed with keeping the bad element out of his school, and as both their story and their friendship start to splinter, Charles and Aidan discover they are not as far from the law as they had hoped.