Is an account of the first few decades of life through the eyes of Joe Critzki. A jersey native, Joe experiences a destiny that runs him from youth, spent in the poverty of the projects, to unlikely success through academics, and, slowly, into his disease of alcoholism. Always trying to balance work and play, Joe fights economic plight with hard work, developing a sense of self-reliance that would eventually become his undoing. He believes there is only one shot at glory and that life is an event with no dress rehearsal.