Set in 1970s Los Angeles, this memoir details the author's growing up in the foster care system and winding up in the home of an alcoholic pedophile. The author explores her development, showing strength, resilience, humor, and the inevitable, penetrable damage resulting from loss and abuse during her formative years. She depicts her care takers as complex human beings who along with doling out routine, horrific sexual abuse instilled a sense of discipline and ambition.