There is Bobbie, out knocking off vending machines, stealing car stereos, sliding perilously through life shooting speed - and eating whatever pill comes his way. And then he meets Mel, who knows things - like how to crack a safe, the best way to set up bogus checking accounts, the fine art of cutting through walls and ceilings.

For Bobbie, at fourteen, it's only the beginning. And he's not above learning life's lessons from picaresque characters other than Mel, including Mel's lover and crime partner, Syd; the Reverend James Cook, born-again, Southern-cracker gun dealer; the tersely philosophical ex-Black Muslim drug runner, Ben; and Rosie, the seventeen-year-old Latina love of Bobbie's life.

The trouble is, they all end up doing dangerous things together, while Bobbie and Mel, especially, sink deeper into heroin's fiery depths.