Baby is twelve when the novel begins. She and Jules, her dad, are moving into a run-down apartment called the Ostrich Hotel. The room “had the smell of wet clothes and pot that our last apartment had. It smelled as if a florist shop had caught on fire and all the flowers were burning” (2). It’s clear that she and her dad move frequently.

She explains that she was called Baby because her mom and dad had her when they were only fifteen, and only young parents would think of such a name. Her mom died when she was a baby, leaving her dad to care for her by himself; he’s now a twenty-six-year-old heroin addict.

It’s Baby’s twelfth birthday, and Jules makes her a homemade piñata. His best friend Lester comes over to help them celebrate, but instead they get high on heroin while Baby watches TV. She feels abandoned; “I was still clingy like a little kid with Jules and I hated when he dumped me like that. I was so lonely all of a sudden. When I felt lonely, I really felt lonely” (12).

She wanders to a skating rink and finds children she knows from the neighborhood.