Kidd was born in upstate New York in 1947. He has no memory at the beginning of the book. He was released from a mental hospital and went to Bellona. While wandering the streets he meets Tak Loufer who gives him the name Kidd. His mother was a Cherokee Indian who dies when Kidd was fourteen. He received a scholarship to Columbia University, which he lost after his first year. He suffered a nervous breakdown before the end of his first year.