This is the story of Jordan Highland, a Hollywood child star whose life resembles the card game called Mao--a game in which only the dealer knows the rules. A heroin addict at fifteen, Jordan is estranged from his neurotic aging-starlet mother and the victim of his ex-pro football player father's bizarre sexual predilections. Having crashed and burned in the L.A. fast lane before he is old enough to drive, Jordan waits and watches as his mother and grandmother--an extraordinary woman who was once a renowned photographer and is ravaged by cancer--play the ultimate hand of Mao, with Jordan designated as the winner's "prize."