Artie Cohen is alone in Manhattan when his nephew Billy Farone is released from the young offenders' institution where he has been since he fatally stabbed Heshey Shank (and tasted his flesh, just to see what it was like). And Artie is the one Billy wants to come home to - Artie who is family, who can speak languages like he can, who is an outsider who uses charm to get what he wants - who is the only person Billy cares about, and in whom Artie sees his own KGB father all over again. But Billy is not the scarred child-victim-hero Billy the Kid who was portrayed by the press years before and in the weekend that follows his return Artie is swept into a case that faces him with some terrible choices ...