The oldest child in a troubled Philadelphia family, Angel Ferente
struggles to care for her three sisters while pursuing her goal of
attending college on a swimming scholarship. She has a problematic
relationship with her mother, Pic, who uses alcohol and drugs to
self-medicate and at one point lost custody for a year, and an
outright
hostile relationship with her stepfather, the only father figure in
her
life. Angel is the center of stability in the household--making sure
the
younger girls get to school, ensuring that holidays are observed,
doing
the family's laundry at her part-time job at a Laundromat, and even
taking care of Pic when she is sick or depressed. It's 1993, the midst
of the crack epidemic, and Angel and her sisters are witness to the
everyday events of life in a community beset by poverty and drugs:
dealers on the corner, shoot-outs that kill bystanders, prostitutes on
the job, and more.
Then Angel goes to a team party on New Year's Eve--and doesn't come
home
afterward. In the wake of her disappearance, her teammates, her
coach's
church, and her family search the city for her. The result changes
their
lives forever.
