[4] Set in the fictional small town of Ice Haven, the graphic novel comprises 29 short, stylistically diverse comic strips.
Although each strip is separately titled and presented as if it is self-contained, together they tell a story about the characters' interrelated lives.
Collectively, they create a narrative centered around the kidnapping of a young boy named David Goldberg.
This central plot ties together the seemingly disparate lives of the characters, revealing their connections and the impact of the event on the community.
Wilder is an aspiring writer who nurses a bitter rivalry with Ice Haven's current poet laureate, Ida Wentz.
After reading some of Random Wilder's poems, she becomes obsessed with the neighbor who she describes as an "owlish oddity", and begins to follow him around.
Secretly, Charles is madly in love with his stepsister, Violet, and wishes to end the marriage of their parents in order for them to be together at a later date.
She is unhappy at home with her mother and stepfather, is teased at school, and appears to be friendly only with a girl named Julie.
Julie Rathman – An overweight friend of Violet's who works at a stationery store and is generally miserable.
In a short comic, Blue Bunny is shown in his anthropomorphic form, where he is revealed to be psychotic.
The comic generated controversy when Nate Fisher, a high school teacher in Guilford, Connecticut gave Eightball #22 (Ice Haven) to a student as a make-up summer reading assignment.