It's 1949 and eighteen-year-old pitching phenom Mickey Tussler is back with the minor league Milwaukee Brewers. Despite Mickey's proclamation that he will never play baseball again after last season's violent conclusion, his manager--and now surrogate father--Arthur Murphy cajoles the emotionally fragile, socially reserved autistic boy into giving it another shot. When a young African American player joins the Brewers, the entire team is subjected to racial threats and episodes of violence, one of which Mickey witnesses firsthand. Struggling to comprehend such cruelty and hate, and fearful of reprisal should he share what he has seen, the boy's performance on the field suffers. Mickey must now deal with a side of human nature he scarcely understands.