A male stripper lives with his sister, Min, his cousin, Jade, and his aunt, Aunt Bernie, in Sea Oak, a dangerous neighborhood. Min and Jade both stay home all day watching TV, studying for the GED and watching their babies, the latter two which they don't do well. Aunt Bernie is always incredibly good-natured and optimistic despite her harsh lot in life, working full time at a drug store, having been left no inheritance, and never enjoying herself. One day, Min and Jade call the narrator home from work because Aunt Bernie has died. Someone broke into their apartment, and she died of fright. They bury Aunt Bernie, but shortly thereafter get a call that someone has vandalized her grave. When they visit, her grave is empty, as if someone has dug up her body. Shortly after that, the narrator is once again called home from work to find Aunt Bernie sitting in their apartment, risen from the grave. Her former optimism replaced by aggression as she bosses them around about how to improve their lives. She tells the narrator to show his cock at work for money, which is illegal, but one of the male strippers at his workplace does it. She has magical powers and tells the narrator she will place a glowing thumbprint on the forehead of anyone who will see his penis for money. She instructs Jade on how to get a job by showing off her body and orders Min to babysit and learn how to cook. She also proclaims that, in her new life, she will have all the lovers she never had, as she died a virgin. She states that this is phase one of a grand plan she has to better their lives, starting with them saving enough money to move to a better neighborhood. Over the days, she slowly falls apart, until she is a pile of still-talking body parts. The narrator doesn't show his penis at work, and she knows and is angry. She says she will begin leaving two thumbprints on the foreheads of clients who want to have sex with him. She predicts that Jade will come home with sandwiches in a green bag and that Min's child will be caught in crossfire and killed in September if they don't move out. Jade comes home with sandwiches in a green bag. Aunt Bernie dies again, the parts going lifeless. The narrator gathers the parts in a bag and re-buries them in her grave. Then, at work, he gets his co-worker to teach him how to ask customers if they want to see his penis or have sex for money. He thinks of Min's son. He picks out the house he wants to move into, when they have enough money. He dreams of Aunt Bernie, who keeps asking him why she got nothing in life when other's get so much, to which he responds that he doesn't know.