Rosie Kettle, quick and intuitive, leaves her small town in the California desert to attend art college in San Francisco in the late 60’s. There she discovers a passion for photography and music. Through a chance meeting with Peter Varga, a flamboyant Hungarian illegal immigrant who runs a local music newspaper, Rosie is offered her first job photographing a down-and-out blues musician. This experience opens the door to her career as one of the first rock and roll photographers, while at the same time introducing her to the chaotic, seductive life of the music industry.

She meets David Wilderspin, young guitar sideman in the bluesman’s band, with whom she will spend her entire life. Although he is only 19, David is already a survivor. The estranged son of a violent, Russian choreographer, David has spent his life fighting to come to terms with his conflicted feelings for his father.

Only days after Rosie and David meet in a small club in San Francisco, the bluesman hangs himself. This single self-destructive act changes the lives of both Rosie and David forever. The picture Rosie takes that night, her first paying job, jack-knifes her into a new career as one of the first women rock photographers battling a male-dominated profession.

Rosie and David are characters of courage and grace, and the book is written in a profoundly literate style, a first-person narrative, with simplicity and honesty.