Elaine Bartlett

Elaine is the novel's main character. The story is about how Elaine is sentenced to twenty-years to life in prison in New York for carrying a bag of cocaine from Manhattan to Albany. Elaine's upbringing is poor and abusive. Her mother tries her best to raise a family of six children on welfare and hand-outs from other family members. They live check to check in a very meager apartment in the projects of New York.

Elaine, at a young age, has Apache and Jamel by a boyfriend named Bobby. She then meets Nathan and has Satara and Danae. She struggles to raise the children and one day hears of a chance to make $2,500 by carrying cocaine from Manhattan to Albany. She figures this will be enough money to buy a nice Thanksgiving dinner for her family. She has been set up by two police informants. Guilty of...