The whole story centers around a boy of about 12 and his family after his mother is very violently raped. It opens with him going with her to the hospital, and her recovery is chronicled in the book. She at one point gives a detailed description of the attack. The protagonist and his friends often sexualize other girls, and an underage character has sex with a girl in a church basement. He later confesses this to a priest who attacks him. The protagonist and his friends spy on a priest changing clothes. The protagonist blackmails his adult aunt, a former stripper, into performing a strip tease and dance routine for him, too, when she does one for his grandfather (her father-in-law) for his birthday. He also sexualizes her throughout the book and tries to subtly touch her chest at some opportunities. He ejaculates under a blanket while she rubs his feet without her knowing. There is a discussed and implied relationship between a teenage girl and the governor of her state when she is interning for him, and she has a child due to this relationship. She is another victim of the attack on the protagonist's mother.