The book begins with a happy family, nothing out of the ordinary. Dave talks about how his mother was an amazing cook and wonderful woman. She went out of her way to make her husband and children happy. One day all that changes, she begins drinking and starts to get out of control with her anger, taking it out only on David. His other brothers wanted to help but, of course, were scared of what their mother would do. The abuse was mostly when the father was out of town, but as the book goes on it becomes more frequent. He was sent to live in the basement and rarely fed. His mother basically used him as her slave, constantly making him do chores in ridiculous amounts of time. When the chores were not finished in the allowed time span his mother would find insane ways to torture him; burning his hand on the stove, making him breathe toxic air, beating him until he can no longer move, and so much more. Eventually a teacher notices and takes action. David was abused from age 3 to 12.