And so it begins...

Money, power, coffee: these three ideas do not cross Buck Star's mind the night he graduates from high school. But when Chet Armstrong, his bully of four years, steals his girlfriend as a final act of insult, Buck cannot take the abuse any longer and vows to fight back by hitting Chet where it hurts the most: his popular juice stand.

In an act of defiance, Buck agrees to a 60-day bet that he can outsell Chet and his juice by summer's end at the risk of becoming Chet's employee if he fails. The problem is that not only does he know nothing about running a business or making coffee—his competing product of choice—but he also knows nothing of the shady levers that much more powerful people in Hybrid City are pulling to control area businesses, including those run by naïve eighteen-year-olds.

Fortunately, several area business owners take Buck under their wings and teach him how to become successful. And his friends are also ready to lend a hand as needed. Unfortunately, the deeper Buck goes, the more he discovers what every owner in Hybrid City already knows: freedom in this town is an illusion, and the more success one finds, the bigger the target on their back from those who pull the strings.

Does Buck have what it takes to catapult his own business to success, win the 60-day bet, survive the summer, and maybe win back the girl? Or will the adult bullies of Hybrid City swallow him, his coffee business, and his innocence whole?

Summer 1985. Somewhere between L.A. and Seattle, a boy becomes a man.