[citation needed] Due to rights issues with the eponymous song, From the Inside, the 1993 film adaptation directed by Richard Lowenstein was named Say a Little Prayer.

[1] The novel begins with shy, eleven-year-old Seymour staying with Thelma, an acquaintance of his mother for the summer holidays.

During the day, while Thelma is at work, Seymour is not allowed to open the door, or leave the house, because of his mother's fear that his father might come and find him.

One morning Seymour decides to climb over the back gate and walk to the nearby shops.

Angie takes him on outings to horse races, her mother's house, shops, and a restaurant.

Angie apologises to Seymour through a letter and writes about the rehab, and how when her baby is born they will go to live with her parents.

He describes Carrucan, where he and his mother have moved to, and that his father visited him and got a job as a truck driver.

Seymour talks about how he has made a friend called Martin, is finally learning how to swim and that when Angie gets out of Lakeview they can go out to places together with her baby.