At 7 years old, Jeff Greene comes home from school to find a note from his mother, Melody Hittinger, telling him that she had to leave for a while and for him to not be sad.

Repeating eighth grade at his new school, Jeff makes two good friends, Phil and Andy, gets his life back on track.

After two years in Crisfield, Jeff meets Mina Smiths, and the Tillermans: Dicey, Sammy, Maybeth, and James.

As Jeff ages, he deals with this anxiety in different manners: at first, he mimics his father's indifference, but eventually that becomes too much and he falls into a depression.

The Oedipus complex is traditionally resolved when the son identifies with the father and develops a healthy libidinal relationship with the mother.

When Melody reenters Jeff's life, he first expresses his unconscious desire—his first words to her after seeing her for the first time in five years were, "I'd forgotten how beautiful you are."

But just as the Oedipus complex is revived in Jeff, he meets Melody's new boyfriend, Max, who awakens a deep castration anxiety in him.

It's only after both the Oedipus complex and the castration anxiety are central to Jeff's unconscious that he develops his neuroses and falls into a deep depression.