It’s sometime in the 1950s in a southern American town. Will is a poor young black boy, who collects pop bottles, often rummaging through garbage cans, to earn some pocket money, often just to eat. Mr. Cooper, who takes Will’s bottles, does whatever he can to help Will while leaving him with a sense that it is not charity. Others that don’t know Will but see him on the street perceive him just to be a scruffy street kid not worth their time. But Will’s encounter with a waitress, who dismisses him like most of the others, may forever change her perspective.