Having experienced the height of human cruelty from the very first day of his life, Jace is forced – all alone and orphaned for a second time at the age of seven – to begin an unfair struggle for survival. In a world dominated by the exploitation of the weak, he will go from begging at traffic lights, to the inferno of reform school, and on to the tainted world of corruption, prostitution and drugs. But even as every new hope of escape is thwarted, Jace continues to fight, keeping the scars – both literal and figurative – of his personal losses well-hidden.