Now Dr. Karlene Richardson, a professor, author, and motivational speaker, the author tells of her journey from Jamaica to America in hopes of finding a mother's love, absent from her life since she was eight months old when she was given to her maternal grandparents who raised her. Now 15 years old, Karlei looked forward to living with her mom. However Karlei soon learned that she was brought in to babysit her mom's newborn whom she had with her newly wed husband. Karlei was allowed to hang out with her mom's friends' daughters, one of whom set her up and she was raped. She was left pregnant. She kept the baby. Soon, they were both homeless on the streets of Brooklyn, living on the train, then with her daughter's godmother, and next her cousin's partially abandoned building. Karlei begged for quarters on the streets to feed her daughter, while she ate from the garbage the left overs of the men who fixed the basement of the partially abandoned house she called home. A sip from a bottle she thought contained soda, but instead was Pinesol quickly brought the reality of what her life had become. She knew she needed a change in her life. If not for her, then for her daughter. She knew she couldn't stay in the gutter of life much longer . . . she knew she had to fight her way out, and she did!