Ten-year-old Lorraine and her older sister, Kathleen, who is 14, are in foster care. When they decide to go to the old house on their mother’s birthday, Lorraine remembers what life was like for her and her sister before her mother walked out.

They lived in a nice little house in Vancouver, Canada. Their father is usually gone. He’s a logger and goes out for jobs, more often than not leaving his wife and two girls alone. Lorraine remembers how her mother used to sing in the church choir. One time, when her father was there, they went for brunch and her mom was drunk. The mother spills her beer into everyone’s food and ruins everything. Lorraine can tell how angry her dad is by the way, afterward, that “he drove so fast everything blurred” (104).

Lorraine knows that when her father calls, her mom blushes and giggles. Once while her mother drinks in the bed with Lorraine, she calls them a pair, but when Lorraine says she is glad they’re a pair her mother tells her that is the wrong answer. She doesn’t want her daughter to be like her.

Lorraine remembers how, on her last birthday, they went for Italian food.