Nine-year-old Berries Goodman and his off-beat family move from a culturally-mixed New York City neighborhood to a ramshackle old house in a seemingly benign suburb. But, the suburb's surface of contentment cracks to reveal virulent anti-Semitism when Berries' prickly next-door-neighbor Sandra takes umbrage with his unabashed preference for friendship with a Jewish boy. The interplay of a constellation of lively, distinctive characters places the clash among the children squarely in the midst of the attitudes and actions of the adults who care for them. Told by Berries in retrospect when he is a senior in high school, the novel shows the inner workings of anti-Semitism and the profound pain that it causes.

After his family moves to the suburbs, nine-year-old Berries Goodman finds another loner like himself, but then loses his best friend through prejudice.