During the first five years of Honey Boy's life, his mother, Bella Lee, discovers motherhood is not as she envisioned. Fearful of beauty fading and selfish wants beyond reach, she is desperate now to recapture her past. Honey Boy's enrollment in kindergarten affords Bella the opportunity she deems well deserved. Frightened beyond reasoning, the young Honey Boy steps onto the waiting school bus for the first time. With tearful, pleading eyes, he watches as his mama's figure disappears over the rise. Rid of her excuse for happiness unfulfilled, Bella races to embrace the past. A past that embroils Honey Boy in a most confusing and dangerous present.