在这部喋血校园剧情片中,本片彷佛为90年代版的「吾爱吾师」。长春藤名校毕业的葛瑞芬伯恩（丹福特曼， 「鸟笼」）来到纽约市一所天主教教会学校教书，面对一群来自低下阶层的孩子， 满怀理想的他，希望藉由爱心与耐心的教导，让这群学生能免于复杂环境的诱惑， 沦为街头不良份子。就在此时，他发现了一个来自家庭环境一团糟，却极有绘画 天分的学生李，为了不埋没李的才华，葛瑞芬尽全力帮助他完成学业，以期顺利 进入艺术学校就读。但掌管学校校务的神父法兰克（米基洛克，「约翰葛里逊之造 雨人」）却和他的想法背道而驰。法兰克基本上认为在这个充满暴力与贫穷的环 境，力求改变无非是徒劳无功，维持学生的现状乃是最明智的作法。
Griffin Byrne is the idealistic new history, English and maths teacher in Father Frank Larkin's school in a mainly Latino ghetto neighborhood where most kids, even many of its graduates, end up in crime and poverty. He takes a particular interest in one of the boys nobody believes will ever come to anything, Lee Cortes, who he finds to be a prodigy in cartoon drawing but who never spoke a word at school, and always wears a Walkman, essentially because of his home situation: his elder brother Tyro, a drug dealer, abuses him and his mother, so he often stays home to mind the smallest siblings. Griffin tries everything to help Lee, despite everyones cynicism, even takes him in his bachelor flat, but finds the whole family situation must be solved, which is probably beyond his power, yet tries tireless, even if he gets nothing but abuse and the results seem to do more hurting then helping...
