[1] Lamb's novel was named a finalist for the 1992 Los Angeles Book Awards' Art Seidenbaum Prize for first fiction.

Her grandmother has great difficulty processing the ongoing disintegration of her immediate family and the transformation of her once predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood into a multi-racial, poverty-stricken, and crime-ridden one.

Dolores starts attending St. Anthony's, a Catholic junior high school, and struggles with bullying and loneliness, unable to fit in to the established social hierarchy.

After being raped by a neighbor named Jack, who preys on her vulnerable state, Dolores turns to food and television for comfort, leading to extreme weight gain.

There Dolores is ridiculed for her weight and cultivates a secret obsession with her roommate's long-distance boyfriend, Dante, who sends love letters and nude Polaroid photos in the mail.

After a humiliating episode of bullying at a school event, she is coerced into a one-night stand with Dottie, the college's lesbian custodian.

After her suicide attempt, Dolores is institutionalized for seven years at Gracewood Institute, a private mental hospital in Newport, Rhode Island.

Dolores gets a job at a local grocery store and moves into an apartment across the hallway from Dante, who now works as a high school English teacher.

Dolores takes up multiple jobs as Dante spends money recklessly and leads a sedentary lifestyle at home.