For most of the narrative, James Beaumont, patriarch of the Beaumont family, sits on death row. His wrongful arrest and incarceration looms over the entirety of the story and affects each of the family members he leaves behind. The Beaumont family’s experience of living with an incarcerated family member are representative of the innumerable lives in the real world shaped by incarceration.

Tracy narrates the story from the first-person perspective; she watches the effects of her father’s incarceration on her family. When they visit Daddy in prison, Tracy observes the rare sight of her parents together: “[Mama] lowers her head. Daddy kisses the top of it, touching along her face. It’s so intimate I want to look away. Put a wall around them so they’re alone [...] I can’t help watching, because it’s the only time I see my parents together” (127). Moments like these, small intimacies between two people who love each other and who have created a family together, become momentous when filtered through the lens of incarceration.

In his father’s absence, Jamal takes on a paternal and caretaking role in his family. He leaves daily notes for Corinne in her lunch box and decides to go to a university nearby to be available to his family.