James Mills, a reporter for Life magazine, drew upon his firsthand experience of New York City's junkie underworld to create this harrowing, fictionalized account of the tragic love affair between two junkies. Mills spent months with Bobby, a small-time street hustler, and Helen, a middle-class Midwesterner reduced to prostitution. Mills's observations of their desperate struggle to score heroin during a shortage provide an extraordinarily intimate view of drug addiction. The acclaimed film adaptation, written by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, starred Al Pacino in his first lead role.