Surly and silent, Yussef cuts a lonely figure at school, isolated from staff and pupils alike. But when a vicious schoolyard fight leaves a boy severely injured and Yussef on the brink of expulsion, his one ally and friend, long suffering teacher Emily Robson, is summoned to a crisis meeting to decide what to do with this aggressive outcast. The next day, she sets the class an assignment; 'the day that changed my life'.