After a highly devastating event in his youth, the writer, joined by his three siblings, is dragged with them through eastern American towns and cities by their nomadic parents whose alcoholism forces constant evictions. Seven schools in eight years he endured with a sojourn so pure and peaceable as to not be believed. Developments force his return to his unstable family, but eventually he grows to an age when he can determine his future. This is the story of his ever-evolving transformation.