The story centers around Will McLean, who is in his fourth year at the fictional Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South Carolina. Will’s experiences are heavily based on Pat Conroy’s own experiences at The Citadel, a real military college in Charleston. The story is narrated in first person by Will, who attends the Institute between 1963 and 1967. Will recounts his years at the Institute, especially focusing on the school's brutal culture of hazing and abuse. After discovering a secret society that convinces freshmen deemed unworthy of graduating from the Institute to drop out by any means necessary, Will and his friends' graduations and lives are threatened.