In one scene, the protagonist speaks with a man who openly stares at her body in a sexual way while he is talking to her. The protagonist's brother reacts strongly against her, a Black woman, being in a relationship with a white man because of the history of white men raping Black women. In the climax of the book, the protagonist's brother reveals that he and a friend of the family used to take turns having sex with their employer's wife. It is unclear in the narrative whether the wife actually agreed to this, but regardless, the brother and the friend were teenagers.