When readers first met John as a young boy in the book Baltimore Catechism: Clean Slate, he had just begun attending Catholic school and spent much of his time trying to discern exactly what the nuns were teaching him and what it really meant to follow the rules.

Now, John and his family face major life obstacles: housing, health and finances. When John's parents decide their only option is to move West, John has no choice but to go. But the Arizona desert is very different from the Irish-Catholic Massachusetts town he came from, and he soon learns what it means to survive in the barren land he is forced to call home.

At times flippant but always thoughtful, this coming-of-age novel defines a year's journey that takes John from crime to confirmation.