Dallas Dupree is a one woman man. A handsome and successful teacher, he is both worshipped and envied in his Atlanta neighborhood and chooses to live and raise his daughter, Aja, in the ghetto where he grew up rather than desert his roots. The only problem is that the one woman for him—his beloved Yasmin—passed away giving birth to his daughter. Now Dallas struggles through a string of empty relationships, unable to commit his heart because no woman can measure up to Yasmin. However, when Dallas plays with the wrong woman, he finds the consequences may cost him much more than he can afford.

Growing up on Philadelphia’s gritty streets, Jermaine Banks was used to fighting, but life has now thrown him some unexpected hooks and jabs. Almost thirty years old, with a three-year-old son who worships the ground he walks on, a pregnant girlfriend whose family hates every breath he takes, and a slain best friend whose death racks him with guilt, Jermaine realizes it’s time to change. But can he step up to the challenge, or will he continue to be a trouble man?

Tall, dark, and handsome, Prodigy Banks was once a playboy. Now he’s a man any mother would be proud to call her son, and when he meets Nina, the mother of the young boy he mentors, it seems that life is going to get even better. But when his past threatens his newfound respectability, Prodigy has to act fast to protect his new relationship.

Siblings DeMarco and Jasmine Winslow have developed a talent for survival. But if given the chance, they would do anything for a fresh start. . . .

Franklyn "Franky" Bourgeois is fifteen, and he's already done more living than most. First he was blasted out of a normal childhood in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Determined to survive, he left town with two older cousins. They were nothing short of thugs, but they were all he had. And hard as he tried, even for a good kid like Franky, their influence was hard to resist. . .

Coming up in the inner city, Kwame and Romeo Braxton never had anyone except their Nana and each other. So when big brother Kwame caught two years for doing nothing but keeping the wrong kind of friends, their lives were turned upside down. And things are about to get shaken up one more time