At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. He surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children; the two spent almost a year moving among shelters. Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city's invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district.