After looking for a job for many months and not finding it because he is black, the protagonist is offered a teaching position in the East End, one of the poorest neighborhoods of the English capital. He is put in charge of the main class. He presents his experiences at Greenslade School. He understands the sufferings and hardships of the families of the place that lead to young people who are rebellious, crude and uninterested in learning. Thanks to education, the students are changing. He tried to get to know each one, to give them affection, to trust them and to orient them for life.
The author, a novelist born in Guyana, was a teacher, and known for his stories of social issues and racial discrimination suffered by blacks. This work is semi-biographical. Braithwaite was an intelligent and cultivated man who served as an RAF pilot in World War II.
The book was successfully adapted to the cinema in the well-known movie "To sir, with love" starring Sidney Poitier.