Patty, the protagonist and first-person narrator, is a smart and thoughtful 12-year-old Jewish girl living in Jenkinsville, Arkansas. She initially sees herself as gawky and ugly, and she is desperate for the love of her parents, who are, at their best, disinterested, and at their worst, abusive. She is also hungry to break the monotony of her small-town life.

Patty is a radical thinker, something that her parents do not understand. She wants to contribute in meaningful ways to her parents’ store and the world more broadly, but she is restricted to a town that isolates her as a result of her being Jewish and to a house that isolates her as a result of parents’ coldness. Her most important relation is with Ruth Hughes, the Bergens’ African American housekeeper, who respects and loves Patty and becomes a kind of surrogate mother to her.

Through most of the novel Patty embellishes the truth in the hope that she will gain her parents’ love and attention. By the end of the novel, Ruth helps her realize that this will never happen. Instead, Patty should pay attention to and develop this internal voice that insists she is not a bad person.