Trapped in a world of prostitution and drugs, can a teenage runaway's life get worse? It can. Now she's pregnant and witness to a murder. Three years after her father's death in the Gulf War and shortly after her mother remarries, the beautiful and talented Rachel Stewart steals money out of her step-father's wallet and buys a bus ticket to the station nearest Broadway, intending to become a star singing and acting. Angry and rebellious, but also naive and foolish, Rachel trusts the wrong man and vanishes into a world of prostitution and drugs. Five months later, sixteen, pregnant and witness to the murder of another young girl trapped in the same captivity, Rachel escapes before an abortion can be forced upon her. "I messed up big time, didn't I? I did a really dumb thing," Rachel admits to her grandfather. "I've done my share of really dumb things, too," her grandfather, a builder of wooden boats, confides. "Your life was in turmoil, a great storm, and you ran before the wind. In sailing, that can be dangerous; you can easily get off course and lose your way. But now you've made a turn to windward; you're back on course." Rachel is back on course, but she is on a collision course with the psychopath paid to prevent her from testifying."