An African American soldier returns home to New York City from the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. It is a time and turbulence and change. Racism is very much alive in America. Times are tough for a young black man in America, especially one who has fought for his country in an unpopular war. Rick Talley takes what he believes the only economic road open to him: drug dealing. Prisoner of Dreams presents a large cast of characters, from small time street hustlers and pimps to Hollywood and Las Vegas celebrities, to organized crime figures. In a poignant, eye-opening memoir, the author describes his life and the times, the good and the bad, in New York City and Harlem during one of the most seminal periods in America history.