Ayanokouji is a protagonist who doesn't perform emotions he doesn't feel, and the show trusts you to watch him anyway. The school's merit-based cruelty is the real machine, he's just the person who understands how it works before anyone else does. Every interaction becomes a calculation, every friendship a move, and the show never flinches from how cold that actually is.

Koudo Ikusei Senior High School presents itself as a prestigious paradise where students enjoy remarkable freedom and state-of-the-art facilities. The reality underneath proves far harsher. The school ranks its students into four classes, A through D, and only the top classes are treated well, while the weakest are placed in D-class to be ridiculed. For a reason of his own, Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was careless on his entrance exam and ended up in D-class. There he meets Suzune Horikita, an unsociable classmate who thinks her placement was a mistake and wants to rise all the way to Class A, and Kikyou Kushida, a seemingly friendly class idol who hopes to befriend as many people as possible. After these meetings, Kiyotaka's circumstances start to change. Class membership is fixed, but class rankings are not, and lower classes can climb by outscoring those above them. In Class D, any method of getting ahead is allowed, which makes for a psychological drama about a cutthroat school.