John is presented as a social outsider, his one interest being playing the tuba, which he was forced into when asked to choose an extra-curricular activity, but he has a crush on a very popular girl named Gloria, whom he calls "Glory Hallelujah".

John is forced to carry TVs into a truck and realizes that Stan is handling stolen goods, which is how he affords the brand-new TV in their home despite not working.

In school, Gloria humiliates John, Billy picks on him and he is in trouble for vocalizing a rude thought about a teacher out loud and making her cry.

Soon John is asked to dance by a girl in the school orchestra named Violet, who he had previously nicknamed "Violent" because of her bad saxophone playing.

John attends the orchestra's end-of-year concert as a spectator (Stan punched him in the mouth, leaving him unable to play the tuba), where he cries at the end of a piece of music, because he finally figures out that it is a love story.

The New York Times said the book was a mixture between Stephen King's novel Misery and The Catcher in the Rye's main character Holden Caulfield.