Content Warning: The Chapters 1-2 Analysis at the end of this section contains crude language in a direct quote.

Sag Harbor is the summertime vacation destination for 15-year-old Benji Cooper and his family. It’s a beach town on Long Island, New York, that has attracted generations of middle-class African American families. Benji and his family usually stay the entire summer. In the summer of 1985, Benji and his 14-year-old brother Reggie stay in Sag Harbor without their parents for much of the summer; their parents work during the week in Manhattan, only coming out to the beach for a few weekends. Chapter 1 chronicles the arrival of the Cooper family at the start of summer and the subsequent arrival of other families. Each family’s arrival is greatly anticipated as soon as one notices the tell-tale signs of imminent arrival: lawns that have been mowed and cars parked in the driveways.

Benji and Reggie are ten months apart in age. They have often been treated as twins throughout their childhood; their mother used to dress them in matching outfits, emphasizing the effect: “There was something in the human DNA that compelled people to say ‘Benji ‘n’ Reggie.