We are introduced to the narrator and main character, Vince Luca, and to his circumstances, which are both ordinary (he is a typical hormonal and insecure teenaged boy) and strange (his family is a well-known Mafia crime family).

We meet Vince as he is preparing to go out on a date with the “hot” Angela O Bannon. His best friend, Alex, who is himself lonely and romantically frustrated, grooms Vince extensively for the date, telling him only half-jokingly, “This is my love life we’re talking about” (2). Meanwhile, his older brother, Tommy, who works for the family business, is loudly frustrated with a family associate known as “Benny the Zit”; Vince can hear him downstairs in the house, complaining about how Benny was supposed to pick him up to deal with “some business or other” (1).

Tommy’s reasons for being frustrated become clear later in the chapter. Vince’s date with Angela seems to be going well, until they drive to Bryce Beach, to “park.” Vince opens the trunk of his car for a blanket, and discovers a live, injured body wrapped up in the blanket. He recognizes the person as Jimmy Ratelli, or, as he is known, Jimmy Rat: an associate of Vince’s father, who owes the father money.