The Life and Times of Penny Wood

Born in York, England, the only daughter of Jonathan and Eliana Wood, Penny looks back to her formative years and tells how her mother committed suicide when she was only nine years old. Following this, her father overwrought by the death delivers her to King's Cross Station and there he abandons her. Alone she wanders the unlit streets adjacent to King's Cross Station where she is taken in by a streetwalker called Delores, who pities her. Delores' clients take an unhealthy liking to the attractive nine-year-old and so she is forced to pass her on to Tom, a council worker who lets her squat in his garage. On seeing her condition, she is taken in by Melissa, Smithy's fianc e, who in turn leaves her with Sonya, the mother of a Cosa Nostra heavy based at the Oristano Hotel, where she rises from being a homeless scavenger to being the matriarch at the head of an Italian Cosa Nostra family based in Sardinia.