SYNOPSIS:

Growing up in a violent family where her hardened and stern father, KAME SMITH (39), abused her mother until her death, sixteen-year-old DANIELLE SMITH struggles with the fear of someday being a victim of abuse. Danielle and her brother, MYLES SMITH, 17, are left in the mothering hands of their maternal aunt, CHIKA (35). Due to the violence going on at home between Kame and her stepmother, Danielle worries that her four-year-old stepbrother may also be witnessing what she and Myles did as kids. Although Danielle lives in her black ghetto neighborhood, Haven Hills, she and Myles attend a sophisticated private high school, Westside, funded by Chika. In order to escape the problems at home, Myles indulges himself in the school’s athletics but Danielle doesn’t like school because of her slipping grades and materialistic friends. She attends a supposed all-girls’ party in her neighborhood with her childhood best friend, NAYA BROWN (16), a carefree orphan who lives with her grandmother and her eight-year-old sister. At the party, Danielle meets up with the one person she’d rather avoid: SEAN BLACK (17), her childhood crush whom she’d stopped talking to because he tried to touch her years ago. Naya is excused from the party by her angry and abusive boyfriend who smashes her phone and drives her off. Overwhelmed by the horror she just witnessed, Danielle walks home alone but is approached by Sean who offers to drive her home with the intention of getting close to her again. Although she obliges, she still refuses to have anything to do with him, considering the fact that he’s following the steps of his father, a notorious gangster and drug lord. Danielle tries to find out if Naya is fine after the party and reaches out to Naya's cousin, ANDRE (17) who tells her that Naya has been repeatedly abused by her boyfriend. Danielle tries to convince Naya to walk away from her dangerous boyfriend, afraid that Naya may be making the same mistake her mother made by refusing to leave her abusive relationship, but is met with a cold attitude from Naya. Her fears are soon confirmed when Naya is reportedly raped and murdered by her boyfriend, who immediately goes into hiding. The tragedy of losing Naya heightens Danielle's fear of possibly being a victim of violence. After Naya's death, Sean tries to warm his way back to Danielle. He finds her studying alone in a grocery store and sexually assaults her. At the hospital where she’s taken to, Danielle hesitantly opens up to the Nurse, Myles and Chika that Sean is the perpetrator. Traumatized, Danielle decides to be silent for fear of being disparaged by her peers. Encouraged by Chika to report the case, Danielle works with a domestic violence advocate, ELSIE HARLOW (30s) whom she met after Naya’s death. After an investigation, Sean is arrested and charged. He agrees to plead guilty to the charges laid against him. While tracing Naya’s victimage in her relationship and Sean Black’s abusive behaviour amongst other forms of abuse, Danielle discovers a cycle of violence transcending from parents to their kids in families and communities. She decides to do more by using Elsie Harlow’s agency to hold a street campaign where she speaks up against all forms of violence, child and domestic abuse, in order to establish a better tomorrow.