Ignoring her reservations, Annie befriends these down-and-outers and together, with their help, the shop she has named Faulkner & Friends becomes a beacon of hope for the city’s undiscovered writing talent. But just when the fledgling shop seems destined to become financially viable, offering a lifeline to a better future for the destitute characters who have become her adopted family, the shop is plunged into a world of violence and Annie’s dream for a literary life falls to ruin, like scattered pages from a broken bookbinding.