I chase the dragon again. The white curly smoke drifts around me. The animal in my gut leaves me for a while, and I touch peace…  Faith Emily Hansen just wants to be loved and to live without the weight of addiction. But the lure of drugs is strong. The relief that she gets from being wrapped up in the cozy little cotton ball of heroin is impossible to ignore. Faith’s story starts in her earliest days, before drugs, before her family falls apart. Before her mother leaves. Before her sister betrays her, taking away Faith’s last connection to home. She eventually becomes consumed by the need to “chase the dragon” – the heroin addiction that seems to keep the Darkness at bay, but leads her to live on the street. The determination to find love and comfort that lures Faith to drugs is ultimately the same stubborn force that can drive her to recover.

Bruna is the youngest of seven children, living an idyllic life in a small village in Italy in the 1940s. The only complication is the fact that her father lives far away, forcing her mother to raise the family alone. As the Second World War unfolds in Europe their lives remain largely unchanged. In 1943, Bruna's biggest disappointment is that food rationing means there is no cake to celebrate her fourteenth birthday. The Italian leader Mussolini's allegiance with Hitler and the distant reports of fighting seem far away from their lives. When war finally comes to their region, Bruna struggles to cope as her brothers become caught up in the resistance and Nazi soldiers descend to occupy their village. Bruna must help her mother and sisters stand up to the occupying soldiers. Her peaceful life is turned upside down by the fact that her beloved little village – the only front left defended by the Nazis in Italy – is now the centre of the final stage of fighting.