A man grows up as the only son of two parents from Kingston. The man wants to be a fashion designer, but his father thinks it is not a good job. The man also has three women that he finds attractive--Reyha, whose family owns a bread shop, Cherie, a partier, and Sanya, who tends to gossip often. The man takes Sanya as his lover and marries her in a garden.

They have two children--Delano and Trelawny (who is born in Miami). He hopes that his children are smart because he and his wife are. He also hopes they get his wife's teeth.

During the early part of his marriage, a woman dies from police crossfire and the man and his father argue about politics and elections. The man's second son--Trelawny--is somewhat strange according to his father. The family can't afford to keep Sanya at home, which is what they did with Delano, so Trelawny goes to nursery school. The man blames the nursery school teachers for Trelawny's strange behavior.

Eventually, the man leaves his job and spends time at home drawing things he sees. His wife gets mad at him so he finds jobs helping people out, such as fixing their AC or repairing things.

As they get older, Delano becomes very athletic and people ask him to join their football teams. However, Trelawny is very quiet and reads. Sanya thinks that Trelawny is gifted and should be put into a special education program. The man spends more time outside of his home and his wife gets mad.

When the man's father dies, he cries. Hurricane Andrew hits their home and Sanya gets a promotion. They resolve their conflict, but the man goes to dance with Cherie one day. Sanya accuses him of cheating but he denies it. However, he goes to see his child he had with another woman and breaks his wife's heart. She makes him choose between his sons and he chooses Delano because she doesn't trust him with Trelawny.

He does take Trelawny out to each occasionally. Eventually, the man builds himself a new house on Palmetto Bay with his sons and then, Trelawny begs his father to enroll in university. His sons want him to find a good job. Eventually, he finishes his house and it has everything he wants, including a pool. He plants an ackee tree in his yard and spends times with his sons as well as his sons' girlfriends.

One day, while he has many friends and family over, the man notices that Trelawny has cut down his tree. Delano stops his father from going to investigate because he is angry.