On the day her husband is sentenced to prison, Angela Santiago Hart gives up her newborn son for adoption. Eleven years later, she wants him back. This sets in motion a chain of events which engulfs the boy, Ethan, his sister, Abby, and a vast cast of memorable characters, in a maelstrom of legal, domestic and sexual nightmares. Although the novel deals with heady stuff, like the family courts, sexual slavery, murder, pedophilia, madness, prison, and a dark underworld of judicial and personal brutality, what draws one in is how the children endure and transcend their ordeals and the psychological consequences of doing so that emerge later on. Added to this are the stories of the children's parents, Angela's husband, boyfriend and other children, a family court judge and her husband, the girls tricked or kidnapped into slavery, various judges and lawyers, all transformed by a single miscarriage of justice. The power of the book is in the courage, grit, determination and craftiness of its characters and and in their victories against impossible odds.