Nearly a year after his brother's suicide, sixteen-year-old Cliff "Neanderthal" Hubbard gets recruited to make life better at Happy Valley High by the school's quarterback, who claims he had a vision from God. Cliff 'Neanderthal' Hubbard has nobody at school, and life in his trailer-park home has gone from bad to worse ever since his older brother's suicide. Then quarterback Aaron Zimmerman returns to school after a near-death experience with a bizarre claim: while he was unconscious he saw God, who gave him a list of things to do to make Happy Valley High suck less. And God said there's only one person who can help: Neanderthal. As the two make their way through the List, Cliff feels like he's part of something for the first time since losing his brother. But the mission hits closer to home than he ever imagined.