New York City, 1971, a balmy August evening: Just seven blocks from her childhood home, a young woman walks into a Park Avenue apartment and into the troubled arms of her first trick.

So begins Blue Money, a mostly true account of life in New York's gritty downtown scene, and an intimate, no-holds-barred portrait of prostitution in the lawless era before AIDS and the War on Drugs.

Janet quickly embraces "the Life" and despite a ferocious addiction to speed and semi-frequent hallucinations, she manages to keep things professional, whether she's dressed as a genie at the...