Seventeen-year-old Fern has not had an easy life. She struggles at school and lives with her mother in a roach-infested apartment where break-ins are common and the neighbors are unfriendly. Despite these challenges the two of them are managing to cope, but then Fern's mother suddenly has a heart attack and dies, and Fern is left utterly alone. She's a survivor, and not afraid of hard work, but how does a 17-year-old with no skills support herself? Using only her resourcefulness and resolve, Fern fights to create a new life, and just when things seem about to unravel, she discovers that she is not really on her own after all.