Sometimes, hope lives in the most unexpected place.

Jude Zander is a shy, inexperienced small-town girl who has disguised herself as a boy and is on the run from an abusive father. She desperately wants to find her mother who left her without warning.

Jude has never been in a city before. Soon after she arrives she is confronted by hookers, bikers and street punks... and she avoids the police because of an incident with her father. Her only contact in the city is an aunt who wants nothing to do with her. Alone and without survival skills, Jude drifts on the streets until she meets Rags and Gunner, two old panhandlers who offer her a place to stay at an old abandoned warehouse they call The Brickbox. After Rags saves her from a dangerous punk named Pits, he introduces Jude to a diverse group of battered and discarded street people whose resilience, humanity and humor surprise her. They all do their best to teach Jude how to survive on the streets, except for one of them... an ex-cop who wants Jude gone.

When she is ultimately forced to face her oppressive father in court, Jude's street friends find the one witness who can save her.

(approx 250 pages)