When Payton Sherwood takes a wrong turn on a Manhattan East Village side street, he stumbles into trouble--in the form of three bull-necked heavies and a tough sixteen-year-old runaway named Gloria.  After taking a savage beating, Payton is robbed of his Rolex watch and left bleeding on the sidewalk.Tracking Gloria, Payton winds his way through Alphabet City--in and out of trendy after-hours dives, across vacant lots, and into barrio tenements.  Here the shadows that frighten aren't those that shade the street but rather the soul.  Payton's dusk-to-dawn nightmare on the wild side is about to begin--and nothing will stop it but death. . . .