Joe is a kid from the right side of the tracks who cares about his music and not much else - until he falls for a girl named Candy. Only what starts as puppy love turns into near obsession. Candy gets inside Joe's head and he is drawn inside her world. But it's a seedy, dangerous world - filled with drugs, violence, desperation, and the dark truth about Candy.

Though the relationship brings with it tremendous pain and heart-pounding danger, it also gives Joe and Candy a chance to hope for something better. In the end, when Joe is poised to get everything he has ever wanted, he risks it all to save Candy from herself.

In Kevin Brooks's deft hands, this is no sweet teenage romance. This is the bitter world of Candy.