To Jaime Martinez, the southern California barrio of Los Rios is the Garden of Eden and the only world he has ever known. To Jaime's best friend, Danny Moreno, Los Rios is a prison and a reminder of what has eluded Danny all of his young life. At eighteen, Jaime's friend enlists to fight in the killing fields of Vietnam where he hopes to prove himself, and escape the feeling that he is a second-class citizen. One year later Jaime is drafted. After what happens to Danny in the jungles of South East Asia, Jaime decides he will not go and refuses induction. Like Adam, Jaime must leave his Garden of Eden. For the next five years, while in exile in the wilderness, he must elude the two FBI agents that are tracking him, and wrestle with demons that stalk his dreams. Along the way, he finds characters he never would have met, a world he never expected, and a love he never knew existed.