As an idealistic first-year teacher at Wilson High School in California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of unteachable, at-risk students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust - only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding.