The story of Violet Sheehan, a twelve-year old girl growing up during the Great Depression in Stony Hill, a poor neighborhood of New London, Connecticut. Raised in a loveless home, she endures years of cruelty and indifference from an alcoholic father and mentally unstable mother. Living the life of a gamin, Violet vows to escape the trappings of her bleak existence and fulfill her ambition to become a professional writer. Her journey from Stony Hill to Broadway is fraught with several traumatic experiences and setbacks before the harrowing climax, which leaves open questions of life's unpredictable twists, and the roles destiny and fate play in it.