A teenage runaway attempts to readjust to home and family life in Minnesota after returning home after years of working on the streets of New York City as a hooker and tries desperately to regain her parents' understanding and love.

The real-life account of an illiterate, deaf-and-mute, black youth who was accused of murdering a prostitute, and the relationship that developed between him and his court-appointed attorney, who also was deaf, and the events leading up to his precedent-setting trial.