All she wants is a token of his affection.

It's 1987 and fifteen-year-old Shira Spektor lives with her father in a funky apartment building on Miami's South Beach. More comfortable wearing retro '40s clothing than the current fashions, Shira doesn't belong--which is why her best friend is a bawdy, brassy eighty-year-old, and Shira herself has never even been kissed properly.

It would have helped to have a mother to turn to for advice, but Shira and her dad have been doing all right on their own since she was three.

And then her father falls in love with his secretary, and suddenly Shira isn't his special girl anymore.

Bruised by her father's constant criticism and the barbed attention from the popular girls at school, Shira finds comfort in a dangerous new hobby--shoplifting. But when she gets caught by a dark-eyed, streetwise boy from Spain, Shira discovers an unexpected friend and ally.

And then friendship grows into something more thrilling...and less safe.