For the first time, an anthropologist has managed to gain the confianza and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the roughest ghetto neighborhoods in the United States - East Harlem. For four years, the author had completely free rein to observe, tape-record, and photograph every facet of the lives of some two dozen Puerto Rican crack dealers.

By presenting their crack-house conversations in context, he conveys in their own words the most intimate and taboo details of their personal lives: from violent crime and gang rape, to tender friendships and childhood dreams of glory and dignity.