In the bear-trap town of Archangel Valley in 1978, fifteen-year-old R.J. struggles to co-exist with the Blackjacks - a gang of petty but wicked criminals who recruit the innocent youth of the valley before they have a chance to become innocent adults. R.J. has people he wants to protect, like his crippled younger brother, Charley, who he carries around the valley like a backpack. He has people he wants to understand, like the physically precocious Roxanne, whose hatred for R.J. stems back to some uncharted moment in their past. And he has people he wants to never see again, namely Mr. Leguin, the ancient old man the Blackjacks are forcing R.J. to steal from. Standing alone as the sole resistor to the Blackjacks, there are parts of R.J.'s life that survive, and there are parts of R.J.'s life that don't. The in-between and after is a beautiful, sad song about the nature of evil, the nature of storytelling, and the possibility of forgiveness.
