When Charlie Boykin was young, he thought his life with his single mother on the working-class side of Nashville was perfectly fine. But when he is admitted as a scholarship student to an elite private school, he is suddenly introduced to what the world can feel like to someone cushioned by money. As Charlie quickly adapts to life in the upper echelons of Nashville society, he is increasingly pulled into covering for charismatic upperclassman Archer Creigh's constant deceits and his casual bigotry. At what point will the attraction of wealth and prestige wear off enough for Charlie to take a stand—and will he? The Fortunate Ones is an immersive, elegantly written story that conveys both the seductiveness of this world and the corruption of the people who see their ascent to the top as their birthright.