As they look forward to the New York City Marathon in which their friend Mr. B. will run, the Vanderbeeker children learn that one of their good friends is homeless.

Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. Taunted at school she skipped classes, winding up in a girls' home and eventually, at fifteen, on the street. When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she became determined to go back to school. This is the unforgettable and beautifully written story of how Liz, while homeless, squeezed four years of school into two, won a New York Times scholarship, and made it into Harvard.