When Horty Bluett was adopted he arrived clinging to a beat-up doll with eyes that seemed to glow. Little Horty came to call his doll Junky, and he felt lost without him.Because Horty knows he is different -- not like other boys. And he knows that his adoptive parents hate him for it. So he runs away from loneliness, fear, and persecution to a carnival where he feels safe among the freaks with Junky. But for Horty, safety is impossible. For there is a man who knows just what makes Horty and Junky different, and he will stop at nothing to control it.