Marquis and Tru are both fourteen-year-old black boys, but they exist in two totally different worlds. Marquis is a booksmart prep-schooler living in the affluent suburb of Achievement Heights, while Tru is a street-savvy kid from deep within the inner city of Baltimore. Their worlds overlap one day in a holding cell. Tru decides that Marquis has lost his "blackness" and pens a how-to manual entitled "Being Black for Dummies." He assumes the role of professor, but Marquis proves to be a reluctant pupil. They butt heads, debate, wrestle and ultimately prove that Nietzsche and 2pac were basically saying the same thing.