Seven-year-old Jeremiah lived a calm, comfortable life in the care of a loving foster home until the day his young mother Sarah came to take him back. Jeremiah is thrust against his will into his mother's reckless life of turmoil and depravity, bouncing between desolate truck-stops, flea bag motels, strip joints and drug dens. Deadbeat surrogate dads swoop in and out of Jeremiah's life until he finds himself in the custody of his ultra-religious grandparents. Soon after Jeremiah adapts to his new life as a Christian fundamentalist, Sarah returns to claim him. Back on the road and bound by a love only a mother and son could have for each other, Sarah pulls Jeremiah further and further into her dementia. When Sarah is finally and wholly consumed by drugs, prostitution and violence, Jeremiah is forced into a desperate struggle to survive the madness of his surroundings.