After ten years without contact, Bobby Miller (16) shows up famished, exhausted and nightmare-ridden at would be-author Victoria Vicki Millers home. He ran away from his wicked, selfish mother Priscilla and spineless dad, Vickys brother Rob. Their late dad took Bobby away as a neglected baby to be raised with Vickys sister Ruth, her husband and their kids, until dads death allowed his Bobbys dad Rob to file successfully to regain custody. Soon after, Victoria has to choose between concentrating on her novelist career, aided by brilliant publishing adviser Aiden Byrnes, or help doing the right thing for Bobby, and blood proves strong enough to engage lawyer-friend Ned Alvarez to fight for emancipation. But gaining that doesnt solve everything for the uneducated though bright knave, who soon makes makes dubious punker friends and harbors a dark trauma.