Sixteen-year-old Randy Watson isn't sure if the classmate he beat to a pulp will survive. Afraid of the consequences, he runs away from a town in northern British Columbia. Hitchhiking, he criss crosses the prairies from Alberta to Manitoba, working at back-breaking, menial jobs -- at a feed mill, a meat packing plant, on constructions sites and on an oil rig. After years on the road, he settles down in Vancouver and ends up in Oakalla Prison. After serving his time, will schooling and a girlfriend help him break out of this cycle? Or will drugs on the Downtown East Side, another horrific crime and the courts, decide his fate?