Eight year old narrator Jenny Carpenter attempts to deal with her mother's romantic interests three years after the suicide of her father. The story is complicated by Jenny's eleven year old sister Chloris, who is still very much attached to her father, obviously disturbed by his death and by her parent's previous divorce. Chloris rebels against her mother and systematically attempts to sabotage all her romantic prospects, believing that all men (with the exception of her late father) are "creeps".
When the girls' mother marries Fidel Mancha, a Mexican artist, Jenny quickly accepts her new stepfather, but Chloris does not. Jenny struggles with her loyalty to her sister, and her own desire for a new, happy life as Chloris attempts to destroy her mother's new marriage.
This report prepared by Jennifer Selk
