This book is based on actual events. Ricky Schmidt is looking back on the most pivotable moment of his life and how he dealt with it. It's a first person account from age 4, through his teens where he had to choose, along with his friends, if he was going to be a victim, or victor in a time where compassion was often seen as weakness. He describes his experiences of love, loss, and survival in a time when he not only had to navigate the normal challenges of childhood, but do it in a place where it was easy to become victim to those with less than good intensions, or by virtue of being children themselves, just didn't know any better. Ricky's story takes place in the last 60s through early 80s when drugs, sex and crime were just a part of the fabric of normal life. It was only through luck, love, and friendship that he survived at all and this book walks through the events that got him to where he is today.