The book is a classic American bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) told from the perspective of an adult narrator looking back at a tumultuous year in his youth. The story follows Jeon-Gi, a ten-year-old Korean-American child of working-class immigrants. At home, he is doted on by his family, but outside, he roams a derelict neighborhood with a pack of local kids. The summer he turns eleven, his typical childhood misadventures spiral into a series of staggering events that force him onto the precipice of adult knowledge, guilt, and accountability.