Battle View Prison is the nation's worst hell where hanging is without question the better option. Not the best place in the world for a young kid who's deaf and dumb. Billy Rider is condemned to life and barbaric torture with no chance of parole for the crime of fearing to tell the truth, afraid of what his desperate mother might think. He did not murder the girl, but he knows who did. John Anderson is free, for a short while. His true destiny is Battle View. He killed once, and will again for the same reason. In the meantime, he has never forgotten Billy's story and he is about to make things right.