The story is introduced with a thank you letter addressed to Joseph Margolis by then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in which he expresses appreciation for the boy’s $1.00 donation to his campaign and the suggestion that the voting age be lowered to 9. The author includes random memories of Brooklyn in the 1930s, replete with purely innocent images of egg creams, Glenn Miller music, and “aggie” marbles juxtaposed with disturbing images of storm troopers, newsreels of goose-stepping soldiers, and the use of the term “kike” to refer to Jewish people.

Joey’s parents are divorced, and his father fails to maintain contact with him. He is being raised by his mother and aunt, and the family relocates from the largely Hasidic Williamsburg section to a largely Gentile neighborhood in the Bedford Avenue area. His mother, Ida Margolis, and aunt, Carrie Gettinger, are clever, opinionated, high-spirited individuals who show no intention of attempting to conform to their surroundings. Specifically, Joey notes that they “openly lit Shabbos candles on San Gennaro Day […] and helped feed the Italian-American War Widows with […] stuffed derma and potato knishes” (6). They remain unaware of the fact that Joey is being referred to as a “sheenie” (6) by schoolmates who are steeped in anti-Semitism, and that the bruises with which the boy returns home are the result of frequent beatings by his classmates, some of whom are deeply anti-Semitic.