The novel begins calmly, with a detailed description of the setting. It is the summer of 1988, just before the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The narrator of the novel is Frank Bascombe, a former sportswriter turned real estate agent. Frank’s neighborhood in Haddam, New Jersey is a typical suburban, upper-middle class area. It is quiet and relatively peaceful, though Frank mentions two incidents that contradict the impression he gives. First, he describes being assaulted by kids who hit him with a glass bottle while walking home from a closing deal. Secondly, Frank recounts the recent murder of a Black woman named Clair Devane, a colleague and one-time lover of Frank’s, which happened not too far away from where he lives.

Frank discusses has recently adopted a new way of life, as a 44-year-old divorced father. His ex-wife, Ann, and his two children, Clarissa and Paul, live in Connecticut with Ann’s new husband, Charley O’Dell. The divorced couple had another son Ralph who died of Reye’s syndrome, a rare but fatal disease afflicting the brain and liver. Frank carves out a simple existence in Haddam, keeping to himself and living an unassuming lifestyle.