Advanced Nurturing High School, a leading prestigious school with state-of-the-art facilities where nearly 100% of students go on to university or find employment. The students there have the freedom to wear any hairstyle and bring any personal effects they desire. Advanced Nurturing is a paradise-like school, but the truth is that only the most superior of students receive favourable treatment.

The protagonist Kiyotaka Ayanokōji is a student of D-Class, which is where the school dumps its "inferior" students in order to ridicule them. For a certain reason, Kiyotaka was careless on his entrance examination and was put in D-Class.

Students of the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School are given remarkable freedom—if they can win, barter, or save enough points to work their way up the ranks! Kiyotaka Ayanokōji has landed at the bottom in the scorned Class 1-D.

An unnamed person speaks to the reader of the novel, asking them to think about the state of society. They then talk about equality in society, concluding in the end that equality does not exist. They go on to refer to a famous passage which states that learning creates imbalances in equality, emphasizing that the teaching remains the same, albeit in a more complex situation, in the modern era. Finally, the unknown person then speaks to the reader again, asking if they have given thought to the future. They finish by referencing their own experience from when they were in high school.

An old woman had boarded a crowded bus and did not have an available seat. A businesswoman noticed this and asked a high school student who was sitting in the priority seating section whether he would be willing to give the old woman his spot. He pompously rejected the request and started to banter with the businesswoman. After the atmosphere in the bus had gotten more tense, a female high school student attempted to help convince the boy to give up his seat. After being rejected again, she asked all the passengers if anyone would be willing to give up their own seat for the old woman.

Sitting in another section of the bus, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji thinks about his stance on the event that just occurred before him. Not wanting to get involved with troubling matters and partially agreeing with the reasons that the boy gave for not giving the woman his seat, he decides against it. He noticed that the girl next to him had come to the same conclusion. Eventually, a woman gives up her seat and the bus ride proceeds normally. The bus arrives at Advanced Nurturing High School and as Kiyotaka is departing from the bus stop, he is stopped by the girl he sat next to during the ride. She asked him why he was looking at her, and the two discuss the event that happened on the bus.

Later on, Kiyotaka gets to his classroom and, after failing to make connections with anyone, discovers that he sits beside the girl that he had met on the bus. The two speak for a bit, introducing themselves, and watch as various other students come in, including the boy from the bus. The homeroom teacher arrives shortly afterwards and introduces herself as Sae Chabashira. She gives some handouts and speaks a bit about the rules and policy that the school has, proceeding afterwards to give out student ID cards. She explains that these cards contain points that are used as the currency across campus, the distribution of these points is done monthly, and that 100,000 points had already been deposited

Chabashira speaks a bit more to the class and ends homeroom, telling the students to attend the opening ceremony in one hour. The students begin speaking among themselves and prepare to leave. One student, Yōsuke Hirata, speaks up to the class and proposes that everyone do introductions, while also introducing himself to the class. Kokoro Inogashira, Haruki Yamauchi, and Kikyō Kushida all introduce themselves to the class. Hirata prompts the next student to introduce himself, and receives some backlash against the idea due to his aggressive nature. This conflict spurns many like-minded students get up and leave the classroom, including Horikita. Despite this, introductions continued and Kanji Ike and Rokusuke Kōenji introduce themselves next, followed shortly after by an awkward introduction by Kiyotaka.

After the opening ceremony concludes, Kiyotaka decides to stop by the convenience store. He runs into Horikita and the two talk for a while about the peculiarity of the school and the rule system. After talking for a bit they notice the red-haired boy from earlier arguing with the sales clerk due to having forgotten his card. Kiyotaka helps him pay for his goods and introduces himself. The three of them talk for a little bit until Sudō and Horikita get into an argument which causes Horikita to lose interest and leave. Kiyotaka and Sudō stay out in front of the store to eat their meals until a group of older students come by to hassle them away from where they are eating. There is a small argument, but the older students leave after taking pity on them after learning that the two of them are students from Class 1-D, much to their confusion.

Kiyotaka returns to the dormitory and receives a handbook regarding the dorm's rules. He quickly goes over the rules and considers how perfect a system the school has made for the students. He recalls what makes the school so enticing for students, but thinks they are trivial as he had joined the school for one reason: the freedom he has gained by entering the school. He then thinks to himself how glad he was for being admitted and is excited to start his new life.

The following day, the students of class 1-D start slacking off, and surprisingly, Chabashira does not attempt to stop them from doing so. Kiyotaka laments about his inability to make strong connections with anybody in the classroom so far and is chided by Horikita about it. Class ends and Kiyotaka is pulled aside by Kushida. Kushida explains that she is looking to learn more about Horikita, who had been refusing to become acquainted with her. Kiyotaka states that he was only barely acquainted with Horikita himself and wouldn't be of any help.

Later that day, after hearing about the upcoming club fair for first-year students, Kiyotaka decides to invite Horikita to go and look at the clubs with him. After bantering back and forth for a while, she inevitably decides to join him and take a look with the excuse of watching him fail at making friends. In the gym, the duo listens to various club representatives give out introductions to their clubs to try and entice the students into joining. This carries on for a while until only a single student had yet to present. The student takes control of the stage and intimidates the first-year students into silence before introducing himself as Manabu Horikita, the president of the student council. He states that the student council is looking for new students to fill the openings from the new school year and that only exceptional students will be considered for the spots.

After Manabu leaves the stage, Suzune is left unable to speak. Sudō, Ike, and Yamauchi show up and start to talk with Kiyotaka. They talk for a little bit about clubs and invite Kiyotaka to a group chat that they had started. He gladly shares his contact information with them as Suzune quietly leaves the club fair without saying anything.