From the outside, the middle-class James family appears better off than many African-Americans living in Los Angeles-but what appears to be a fairy-tale home turns out to be a breeding ground for despair. Between his inattentive, alcoholic father and his abusive, emotionally unstable mother, Wilson grows up never knowing the selflessness of real love and the resulting void makes him vulnerable to a predator at the formative age of thirteen. Attracted to other males since childhood, Wilson now faces the added confusion of what constitutes true romantic love.

Wilson continues to battle a...