Basketball is a passport. For Adam Reed, this means basketball can take him anywhere. Before basketball, Adam moved from Poland to the United States. Adam's mom died, and his father left him. His adopted mom, Renata, brought him to Minnesota, where his only friend is Barry Roland, and where Kase Kinshaw calls him "the Refugee." Adam does not like to talk about his life before basketball--it gives him nightmares, an inky blackness chasing him in his dreams.

On the court is where Adam finds happiness. Because of basketball, he meets Carli Anderson, who smells like honey and who shoots a basketball with feathery fingertips. Adam is invited to join a select AAU team, with all-stars like Devin Mitchell and Khalil Williams. And this changes everything. Adam begins to find what he's always wanted: a family. Basketball is more than a passport.

This great new life, though, is more complicated. Like so many times before, Adam sees how easy it is to lose what you love. When an off-court incident threatens Adam's basketball career--and his new family--he must decide what matters to him most.