William Lam is a poet and philosopher who captures the glory and suffering of life's passages. Born into the recently ruled communist nation of Vietnam, his family flees to a refugee camp in Indonesia by boat. He later migrates to America, land of the free, and starts a business at age 13. By the time he was 18, he had turned $500 dollars into a four million dollars a year business.

After a bitter divorce and loosing custody of his only daughter, he spends a year in jail and two months in the state psychiatric institution, where he begins reflecting on his life in colorful prose - a collection of poetry that tells a story and teaches valuable lessons.