Summary

In the summer of 1987, 13-year-old Dustin Lance Black drove past Los Angeles with his family as they moved from Texas to California. His mother, who was Mormon had taught her three sons that Los Angeles was a place to be avoided, full of "sinners and moral relativists" (3). Lance, as he was known in his family, felt the city calling to him and, thirty years later, he has called Los Angeles his home for over twenty-five years.

Living in Los Angeles as given Lance the habit of not braking when he hears sirens while driving. However, he broke that habit after his elderly mother collapsed and needed to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and he did not know if she would survive. Despite their religious and political differences, Lance and his mother were very close and had succeeded in bridging the differences...