1978: Lower East Side, New York. Fifteen-year-old Finn Earl`s mother, Liz, is a thirty-two year-old masseuse with a taste for cocaine. When Liz`s habit forces them to flee the city, they find protection under the wing of one of her clients, ageing billionaire Mr Osborne. In Vlyvalle, a golden playground for the super-rich, Finn discovers a people who are stranger, more savage, and more secretive than any tribe in National Geographic. Offered a new life and new friends amongst the decadent and beautiful denizens of Osborne`s empire, Finn falls in love and grows up fast. He`s living a twisted approximation of the American dream - and for a moment everything he wants is there for the taking. But in America, social-climbing is a blood sport. Even on what should be the happiest night of Finn`s life, on an island in the middle of a private lake, naked and high with Maya, Osborne`s bewitching granddaughter, someone is watching him from the depths of the forest and laughing. This is a modern coming-of-age novel in the tradition of "Huckleberry Finn", and a portrait of America as vivid and strange as "The Great Gatsby, Fierce People" marks the emergence of a dazzling new talent.