For Nick Wade, life was an endless series of heroin-fuelled highs and lows. Alienated from most of his remaining family, Nick leads a vagabond existence as one of West Philly's lost addicts. When his girlfriend is killed in a car accident, Nick is ordered to Springbrook Healing and Recovery Center. There he forges an uneasy friendship with his roommate, an alcoholic named John Curran, and meets fellow heroin addict Sarah McCallister. As Nick struggles with the agony and sickness of withdrawal, he finds no solace even at night, when his dreams are filled with images of blood and murder.