Jesse Thistle and his two brothers have a difficult start, with a mother who gives them up to his father, a drug addict who does not feed or protect the boys. Jesse is the one who suffers the most. He tells his life story in this thorough account of growing up, being abandoned, enduring years of loss and sadness, using drugs and alcohol, almost getting killed, almost dying, and at the very end of the book finally waking up and taking control of his life.