After ten years without contact, Bobby Miller (16) shows up famished, exhausted and nightmare-ridden at would be-author Victoria 'Vicki' Miller's home. He ran away from his wicked, selfish mother Priscilla and spineless dad, Vicky's brother Rob. Their late dad took Bobby away as a neglected baby to be raised with Vicky's sister Ruth, her husband and their kids, until dad's death allowed his Bobby's 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 doesn't solve everything for the uneducated though bright knave, who soon makes makes dubious punker 'friends' and harbors a dark trauma.