In 1980’s Miami, African American 9-year-old Chiron, or as people call him, Little, is a sensitive and timid boy who, as an outsider and an easy target, has been running away from bullies all his life, labelled as “soft” for the way he walks.
When that day, the intimidated and chased by his classmates scared Chiron will try to escape in a derelict, boarded up crack den, Juan, a sympathetic, yet, expendable and always cautious local drug dealer, will bring him home not to take him under his wing, but to protect and nourish him.
However, in a world where anything could change instantly by the sight of a knife or a gun, little Chiron rejected by his crack addict mother, he is doomed to live a predestined life, caught in a tragic and vicious cycle…