Charlotte Gulling, a California kid in the late 1960s, and the only stepchild of eight siblings, is a target for an abusive stepfather. Her mother spends too much time in Las Vegas while her husband is serving in Vietnam, leaving Charlotte to care for an unruly gang of seven younger siblings.

Charlotte fits in nowhere, not at home, not at high school. Lonely and with no guidance, Charlotte gets pregnant at fifteen, is sent away from home and forced to give up the baby for adoption.

After a second pregnancy at sixteen, and a short-lived marriage, Charlotte searches for love outside the world that brought her only pain. She meets and falls deeply in love with Mike, a man whose tranquil temperament belies the nature of his work. Charlotte finds happiness with Mike and enjoys a lifestyle unlike any she’s ever known. A house on a hill overlooking Monterey Bay, parties, travel, and every kind of material comfort. Mike, however, is a major cocaine dealer, and Charlotte succumbs to full-blown addiction.

Loss of control over her life forces Charlotte to leave Mike. She travels across Europe to escape her drug dependency and plan her future. For six months her life is filled with romance, friendship, adventure, and danger as she drifts between France, Holland, Italy, and the Greek Islands. She thinks she’s invincible and takes foolish risks – even smuggles blue jeans into a communist country and barely escapes rape. Following a serious illness, she returns to California.

But upon arriving home, Charlotte discovers Mike has found someone new. A return to the wild life and a near-fatal car wreck pushes Charlotte to realize her own frail emotional stability. She seeks the counsel of her loving grandfather, the one figure in her life who loves her unconditionally and a man she trusts and respects more than any other. His one wish before he dies is to see Charlotte stand proudly on her own.

Terrified to watch her grandfather’s health decline, Charlotte struggles to care for him and simultaneously finish court-reporting school before he passes. Flying back and forth between her home in California and his home in Texas, her grandfather’s needs are enormous, threatening her ability to finish her education. The dilemma of choosing between her grandfather’s well-being and her own survival haunts her. During this same time, both her newly-found biological father and half-sister die violently, leaving her emotionally shattered.

Despite many setbacks, she forges on, relentless in her fight to realize her grandfather’s vision for her, becoming financially independent. But Charlotte knows that another important task looms ahead. She must find the children she gave away so many years before.