The novel begins as the protagonist describes the circumstances around meeting Harris. He is an optimist in the face of hardship as he begins explaining his home life has been saturated by alcohol and emotional abuse, but he notes that “meeting Harris would never have happened” if not for his disruptive home situation (1). The protagonist is 11 years old when the sheriff takes him to Harris’s farm, situated in a clearing deep in the wilderness. He describes it as being on another planet where everything is foreign since the protagonist is from the city.

The protagonist reveals that he spent three years with his family in the Philippines during the war, and he scarcely knows the Larsons aside from a single meeting. The family consists of Knute and his wife, Clair, the protagonist’s second aunt and uncle, and their two children (the protagonist’s second cousins) 14-year-old Glennis and 9-year-old Harris. The protagonist, despite being used to shifting from home to home, is nervous and shy around this new family. They are almost too friendly upon first meeting, and Glennis grabs the protagonist’s suitcase to take it inside.