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Severely impaired from shooting "bad dope," and already partially blind from the infection that the poisoned bag has caused, she is forced to hitch a greyhound bus to New York City, and to abandon her care-free, American-bohemian, drug infested life-style.

Upon her arrival to Manhattan, she is immediately admitted to Bellevue Hospital, and incidentally, stuffed with anti-fungals and anti-biotics, all while withdrawing from heroin, and the severely draining reality of coming off of drugs. Several weeks of eye-surgeries later, she is forced to deal with the fact that part of her eyesight is never coming back. It is then that she is placed in New York City's notorious therapeutic community, Safe Haven Village--the quintessential rehab for felons, addicts, homeless patrons, and the mentally ill.

Fast-forward to a year later, and we witness Danielle's reckless plight into the phase 2 commitment of the program, dubbed The "Re-Entry Unit," or "The Village," as Danielle likes to call it, because "it is a freak-show by every definition of the word."

In re-entry, Danielle comes to find out the first year of treatment, titled "The Boot Camp Phase" has nothing on re-entry's bizarre "palace of panic!" She is recklessly plucked and thrown into the Queens, New York program, where she impulsively--and, desperately--commits to only graduating and leaving the program, after she finishes school, and seeks employment. The community is there to help addicts put the finishing touches on their "new, sober lives," or so they say...

With a facility that closer resembles a homeless shelter or mental ward, this is one girl's journey towards a healthy recovery, despite all circumstances against her, interlaced with tales of the corruption ignored in New York City government-operated-and-funded drug recovery system(s), and the wounded, vacant, nomadic broken souls, who are dumped in these places, and often forgotten about. This bold and candid story highlights in the starkest of lights, why it is so difficult for addicts to gain the recovery they seek, when they do finally decide to "put the drug down."

Especially for Danielle, as weaved throughout this tale we witness the complicated and confusing relationships formed between addicts, through desperation, loneliness, and misunderstanding.

From the beginning drama ensues, when her closest confidante and companion, Karen Frodge, is pimped out and eventually back on the needle. Another pair of comrades seduce Danielle into a dysfunctional sexual, triangular relationship, where all three are set to lose, while she finds herself jamming 7 hits of acid down her throat, stabbing herself in the leg while doped up and panic-stricken, and chronically relying on other substances to mask her addiction to heroin. We watch Danielle go from suicide worship, "neurotica," and masochistic-and-habitual self destruction, to finally--at last, a legit fight for recovery, in this "house of broken souls."

Danielle who was also dumped and discarded of by her fiancé of six years, on the day of her third eye surgery--to continue his own reckless lifestyle of sex, drugs and partying--ends up in the seat of counselor; Angel Rodriguez.

Enter more chaos.

Angel is a Latin, Brooklyn-bred counselor, 20 years her senior, and immediately, Danielle is attracted to him. But when he ends up her very own counselor, it becomes obssession for the pair, and in a place filled with corrupt staff members, and deranged and disturbed residents, he is everything Martino believes she needs during her year in Safe Haven's phase 2 building.

Older, wiser, more mature, responsible.

Their connection becomes more frightening for both, as they start to fall head over heels in love, until one day something even more terrible happens. After fighting months of adversity, Danielle is pushed to the ultimate limit when suddenly, Angel is escorted out of the building in handcuffs, and arrested for allegedly dealing in organized crime. Serving as her life raft in a circus run by madmen, Danielle can do nothing more than continue to seek her recovery, and to try to stay off heroin, as she hunts for the truth about Angel. But when she does, she finds that being in love with him could heal her, but it could also possibly destroy her...

"We find in Danielle, part child, seductress, artist, and part broken soul. A young, sometimes strong, other times vulnerable, vagabond and creative soul, who dreams to be able to live life on her own terms."