The story begins:

The gulls landed in Athertown on July 11, 1979. Clouds of them, in numbers unseen since the ornithologists began keeping records of such things. Scientists all over the country hypothesized about erratic weather patterns and redirected migratory routes. At first sullen Nal barely noticed them (53).

It’s summer and Nal, the protagonist, is “fourteen and looking for excuses to have extreme feelings about himself” (54). He’s bummed because his mother was fired from her job and can no longer afford his scholarly pursuits and his brother, Samson, is dating his long-time crush, Vanessa. To make matters worse, Cousin Steve, who is in beauty school, “decided to dye Nal’s head a vivid blue and then razor the front into tentacle-like bangs […] Nal looks like he is going stoically to his death in the grip of a small blue octopus” (55). Further, Steve won’t let Nal cut it. Steve also did Samson’s hair; rather, he shaved it all off. But even without hair, Samson is still extremely attractive to girls, and this makes Nal annoyed. Samson is 17, and has what Nal describes as:

a bovine charm: he was hale and beefy, with a big laugh and the deep serenity of a grazing creature.