Daddy Love, aka Reverend Chester Cash, has for years abducted, tortured, and raped young boys. His latest victim is Robbie, now renamed 'Gideon,' and brainwashed into believing that he is Daddy Love's real son. Any time the boy resists or rebels he is met with punishment beyond his wildest nightmares.

As Robbie grows older he begins to realize that the longer he is locked in the shackles of this demon, the greater chance he'll end up like Daddy Love's other 'sons' who were never heard from again. Somewhere within this tortured boy lies a spark of rebellion . . . and soon he will see just what lengths he must go to in order to have any chance at survival.

Joyce Carol Oates is the author of over 70 works and the winner of a host of prizes including the National Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Oates is Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University.