A young girl recounts the dynamics of her extended family and their various houses on Long Island shortly after World War II. Her grandmother had nine children, including her mother. She found her grandmother's house mysterious, bleak, scary, and no fun. Her grandmother was resistant to modernity. One aunt still lived in her grandmother's house and one uncle too, who only slept on the porch. Her own mother had lived in her grandmother's house, working and paying the mortgage in full from ages 20 to 39, before moving out to marry her father—and act of rebellion as her father was a Jew converted Catholic, and her family was anti-Semitic. Her grandfather told her, in marrying him, she would work until the day she died. After this, all nine children split the mortgage on her grandmother's house equally, for which they resented her mother, though she paid her equal share. The girl and her parents like to eat out and go to the movies. The girl especially feels close to her father. Her parents fight about money. One of the girl's aunts was the "glamorous" aunt, with a house bent on having fun. Whenever she came over, she was allowed to eat all the junk food she desired and they watched empty TV shows. Priests often visit the three houses. Missionaries visit the house of her grandmother, who fundraises for them; priests looking to kick back visit the house of her aunt; and priests visit the girl's house seemingly just to argue with her father in his study; however, his father always kneels and asks their forgiveness at the end. The extended family often gathers at the grandmother's house to watch a bishop on TV. Her father thinks the bishop on TV is somehow corrupt. The girl's father has a heart attack, which the girl feels is punishment for her overindulgence at her glamorous aunt's house. A month later, he dies. She and her mother move back in with her grandmother, where her mother seems at home. The girl hates it there, and becomes invisible. She never learns what happened to her toys or all the other stuff in their apartment. She takes on herself the hard work of mourning her father each day, which she doesn't believe her mother or anyone else to be doing.