The narrator, Kiyama, is a twelve-yearold Japanese boy who is self-conscious about how fast his slender body is growing. He is anxious to succeed and get into a good school, and has many dreams in which he displaces this anxiety onto a fear of death.

Part of his problem stems from an uncertain family life. He has a mother who drinks too much and a father who never seems to be home. He is not a popular boy at school and seems to cope by staying in the background.

His two best friends are Yamashita and Kawabe. They also feel like outsiders and this fate brings the three together and the friendships form. Yamashita is a chubby boy of the same age whose family runs a fish store. He would like to work there as an adult but his mother would prefer that he...