As a child, Mickey Murphy first meets Lucy "Little Angel" Mercado outside a burning tenement on the streets of the South Bronx in 1954. After growing up together and sharing a forbidden interracial romance, Mickey is horrified to watch as Lucy descends into the hell of drug addiction more powerful than any love he can offer her. To escape the heartache, Mickey flees his neighborhood. When he returns years later as a fireman, Mickey realizes his love for his "Little Angel" has never let his heart go. And so he embarks on a mission to find the woman Lucy has become against the dehumanizing burned out landscape of the South Bronx torn apart by arson, drugs, crime, and lost love . . .