Alex is abandoned early on by his parents and disliked by his aunt. Alex escapes, but life on the streets of Tegucigalpa turns out to be more dangerous than he thought and it is difficult to find food. For a while, Alex lives in a garbage dump and collects plastic bags, where he finds an injured puppy that he takes care of. So he gets his new name: Dogboy. The book is based on a real boy and what happened to him and other children on the streets of Honduras.
