Yunior, the on-again/off-again boyfriend of Lola de Leon, is the narrator of this novel about a Dominican-American family in New Jersey. The main character is Oscar (Lolas little brother), the grossly obese king of the nerds, who is forever relegated to the friend zone. The familys story is slowly unfolded through a series of flashbacks and we learn that Oscar and Lolas grandparents were murdered in the Dominican Republic by Trujillos brutal regime, their mother was orphaned and subject to unbelievable abuse before being rescued by a cousin, and ultimately sent to safety in America. The past keeps repeating itself, and the members of this little Dominican family seem doomed by a curse.