Rachel is the protagonist of the novel. At the start of the novel, she is 11 years old, and the novel traces the next few years of her life as she recovers from a tragic incident that kills her mother and her siblings.

Rachel’s mother, Nella, is White and her father, Roger, is Black; she is perceived as beautiful thanks to her blue eyes and light-skinned complexion, but her ambiguous appearance hinders her ability to understand where she fits in socially upon her move to Portland with her grandmother.

Rachel is bright and academically ambitious, and she judges other girls for being less intelligent. She finds making friends with girls difficult, so her social relationships are primarily with boys who desire her sexually. Her difficult relationship with her grandmother makes the resulting confusion of these interactions worse. The most stable adult influence in Rachel’s life turns out to be her aunt’s fiancé, Drew, whose paternal interest in Rachel’s well-being gives her the emotional support she needs.

Grandma, Rachel’s paternal grandmother, is estranged from Rachel’s father Roger, who lives in Germany on an American military base. After the death of Rachel’s mother and siblings, Grandma brings Rachel to her home in Portland, Oregon, to look after her.