Francis, "Fancy" Smith, soon to be an high school graduate, has a big problem. Her beloved mother had simply passed away one morning while she was at school. She comes home to find her lecherous stepfather has already sent her mother's body to be cremated and relinquished all rights to her two-year-old baby brother over to the County Children's Welfare. She's homeless unless she gives in to the life that her stepfather demands of her - take her mother's place in his home and his bed. She flees to the only place she has ever felt safe, the school.
While the teachers and staff are sympathetic to her plight, it's the old janitor. Pappy, that comes up with a plan to benefit her. Only he's keeping secrets of his own, and when the truth comes out, Fancy is torn between her loyalty to the man who helped her in her time of need, and the grandson of Pappy, who has the means to set his grandfather up in style in his waning years, but ruin her life in the process.