Seventeen-year-old Nicole Gordon begrudgingly moves to Philadelphia from the wealthy suburbs when her mother becomes the city's new Assistant DA. As Nicole explores the city's streets, new-found friends put her in the middle of an escalating drug war and in the crosshairs of her mother's own investigation.

D. Ray Morton, is a small-town have-not who has grown up to be a conspicuous big-city socialite. But after a human resource audit reveals an overstated educational background, Ray loses his job, his gaudy paycheck and in turn his identity.