Sarah Mullen is a beautiful child who, at seven years old, is put into care by her drug-addicted mother. Trying to live with the rejection is bad enough, but no one could have prepared her for the pain that was yet to come. Harry Shaw is the boy that everyone bullies, the kid whose own mother locked him in a cupboard so she wouldn't have to look at his face, and then left him there. When he meets Sarah for the first time, a friendship is instantly forged. And out of a desire to be loved an alliance is born. Then into their lives comes Vinnie Walker, a good-looking and calculating thirteen-year-old who will change both their lives forever.