ACT 1: The story opens up with a young black kid named Lafronce returning home from school and finding his mother lying on the couch passed out. He wakes her up to find out what's for dinner and she tells him to look in the fridge and to not bother her since she has a headache. Lafronce makes his way into the kitchen and opens up the fridge but finds only two beer cans sitting on the shelves with absolutely no food in sight. Sad, he heads into his bedroom where he grabs a box out from underneath his bed. He opens it up and takes a Spider-Man collector card out of it. He stares at it for a while and looks very sad. Suddenly, Spider-Man appears in his bedroom and greets him as his secret sidekick. Spidey and Lafronce talk about Lafronce's mother and school for a while and then Spidey heads back out, telling Lafronce to learn to count up to twenty and then he'll be able to go out on patrol with him.

ACT 2: The next day at school, Lafronce and his fellow students are asked to draw a picture of their respective heroes. While the other students draw pictures of Martin Luther King, Dr. Frankenstein and Dudley Moore, Lafronce draws a picture of Spider-Man as his hero. Later that day, Lafronce's aunt, Aleisha Bennett, and her boyfriend, Ray Walker, meet with the principal to discuss Lafronce's love of drawing. More specifically, he is worried about some of Lafronce's depictions of planes flying around and shooting at people. Aleisha replies that Lafronce is a bit different but that he gets that from his mother, her sister. She adds that Lafronce has told her that his mother has been hanging around gangs again. The principal replies that he realizes that his mother has been in and out of trouble but adds that the law makes no provision for her and Ray to foster Lafronce unless his mother his willing to give him up voluntarily. Ray gets angry with the principal and tells him that if nothing is done soon then it's only a matter of time before Lafronce ends up dead or running with a gang. The principal replies that he’s going to talk to Social Services again.

ACT 3: Lafronce returns home from school and finds his mother being thrown around by a drug dealer to whom she owes money. Frightened, Lafronce runs into his bedroom, grabs his Spider-Man card out of his box, and starts crying. Once again, Spider-Man shows up to comfort him and, this time, invites him to join him on patrol as Spider-Kid. Meanwhile, Lafronce's aunt, Aleisha, and her boyfriend, Ray, are on the phone with Social Services to try and get custody of Lafronce until his mother gets better. The Social Worker makes it clear to them – although it only infuriates them – that the law prevents them from doing so. He also stresses that they, Social Services, are doing everything in their power to help Lafronce, just as he wheels his golf cart onto a golf course.

ACT 4: The next day at school, Lafronce learns about Vultures in one of his classes. Lafronce imagines fighting the super-villain known as the Vulture alongside Spider-Man. Later that day, Aleisha picks him up from school and Lafronce is very eager to tell her about all his adventures with Spider-Man. Ray is also there and is really proud of Lafronce for doing well at school, despite having all those problems at home. He buys him chocolate ice cream and a new shirt and they all make their way back to Lafronce's place. When they reach his apartment building, they are shocked when they see two dead bodies being brought out of the building. One of the bodies is Lafronce's mother.

ACT 5: Two months later, Lafronce and his aunt Aleisha return to the apartment building to get Lafronce's stuff out of there. However, the landlord has sold all of Lafronce's possession, because his mother owed him three months rent. Aleisha is furious at the landlord. While his aunt argues with the landlord, Lafronce heads to his old room where he finds his old Spider-Man card all bent and partially ripped in half. He picks it up and at that moment, Spider-Man shows up once again. Lafronce tells Spider-Man that he can't be Spider-kid anymore since he has to go live with his aunt since his mother died. Spidey accepts this and tells Lafronce that he is a big man now and that big men don't hug each other when they part ways but shake hands. Having said that, Spidey takes off his gloves and mask and shakes hands with Lafronce. As they do so, we see that Lafronce's Spider-Man is a black man.