A coming-of age story focused on thirteen year old Johnny Parish. Parish lives in a small midwestern town and develops a close relationship with Roy, a thirty-year old gas station worker who comes to develop intimate feelings for Johnny. The novel explores this controversial relationship and the fall-out when the court and the town learns about Roy and Johnny. A stirring novel written from Johnny's perspective, with a keen sense of the midwestern rural dialect. The narrative explores his trauma and confusion over his first teenage summer.