This is a memoir, so the author is reporting his lived experience.
Toby's mother is named Rosemary. She travels across the continental US on ridiculous ventures. This time, they're on their way to Utah, convinced she will make money in the uranium market. Astonishingly, this fails, and when ex-boyfriend Roy returns to save the day, Toby watches his mother swoon. Toby suspects the man is violent. We learn about why she is single; Toby's father left Rosemary soon after Toby was born. He decides from now on, he will be called Jack. His father lives with a new, wealthy wife and his other son, Geoffrey. Geoffrey goes to Princeton, and Toby ends up living with some new boyfriend of her mothers, this time a guy named Dwight.
Dwight is emotionally abusive to them. He makes him work and takes away his earnings from him. Jack's mother is no help, but ultimately, the problems manifest themselves in Jack's behavior. He is a straight-A student and an athlete. He portrays himself as all-put-together, but secretly, he resorts to criminal behavior. He has a chance to live in Paris with an uncle, but instead he moves in with his brother and is caught stealing.
Finally, he earns his acceptance into college and goes to school at Hill School. He is a good writer, he knows, but he feels privately that it is because he has become a habitual liar. In a fight with Dwight, Dwight puts his hands on Jack and knocks him down, and Rosemary decides to leave Dwight. Meanwhile, Jack steals gasoline from a farmer and will not apologize when caught. He dreams of being a novelist and author, but instead he ends up drafted into service. He is forced to fight in Vietnam.
