With his mother dead and his father busy at work, Howie feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary spend their time burglarizing their neighbors’ homes…

A destitute 14-year-old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother’s hands, harsher abuse at his father’s, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother.

A disease carried by common cockroaches is killing Manhattan children. In an effort to stop the epidemic an entomologist, Susan Tyler, creates a mutant breed of insect that secretes a…