Yunior is a 14-year-old Dominican-American boy living in present-day New York City with his mother and his brother, Rafa. Rafa’s most recent girlfriend, Nilda, is an old friend of Yunior’s. As a child, they bonded over comics. She was thrown out of her family house for a while and lived in a group home. However, she’s come back, and she’s gone through puberty, making her irresistible to Yunior. When Rafa and Nilda have sex, Yunior can only listen so as not to raise their mother’s suspicion, and it causes him to lust after her even more. Although Rafa and Nilda enjoy a passionate love affair, they eventually drift apart after Rafa finds out that he is suffering from cancer. Nilda goes on to have other, older boyfriends that leave her, and Rafa becomes weaker until he dies. At Rafa’s funeral, Nilda and Yunior reconnect. They date later on, and Yunior loves her, but eventually, he moves to college and she becomes just another part of his past.