Seventeen year old New Yorker Greg Sherman is placed in the witness protection program by Jerome Carver after he is able to identify through photos his mother's killers. She was a collateral casualty of his father's murder, he who was going to testify against his criminal boss, Dominic Patton. The two hit men, Dean Raines and Ray Quick, are known associates of Patton's. Given the new name Steven Spencer, Greg is sent to Royal Dominion College, a private boys' boarding school in Montréal, run by Carver's friend, Denise Wokowski, who reluctantly agrees to the arrangement despite a past witness in her care being killed. There, "Spence" befriends another new student to the school, Lenny Dalton, who is somewhat of an outsider due to his tough guy demeanor. The two make a pact to watch out for each other's back. Dalton is not at the school to make friends, as Patton discovered where Greg was, and as such Dean sent Dalton, his unofficial charge after Dalton's father was murdered, to discover which new student Greg is, Dean who will eventually come to kill him. If Dalton is able to discover who Greg is, the question becomes whether he will be able to renege on the pact or the friendship and turn him over to Dean.