The story describes a few days in the life of a five-year-old named Jenny, her father, Martin, and his boyfriend Eric who lives with them.

The book covers such small adventures as Bösche has spoken of her motivation in writing the book: I wrote Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin back in 1981 because I became aware of the problems which some children face when meeting family groupings different from the ones they are familiar with, i.e. mum and dad, possibly mum and dad divorced, maybe a step-parent.

[3] In 1986 various newspapers reported that a copy of the book was provided in the library of a school run by the Labour-controlled Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).

In response to Baker's intervention, Frances Morrell, the leader of ILEA, said that the very limited use of the book in local authority schools was consistent with the government's requirements on sex education.

[4] The resulting controversy made a major contribution towards the then Conservative administration's subsequent passing of the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988,[5] which forbade the promotion of homosexuality by local government (an article about Section 28 in The Times of May 29, 1988,[6] notes the then-current notoriety of the book).