This autobiography tells the story of DeWayne Wickham, who at the age of eight witnessed his father murder his mother and then kill himself. It relates how the author grew up haunted by this event, and how he eventually overcame the reality of the loss of his parents. DeWayne's troubled schooldays are related, as are his experiences as a caddie at an all-white Jewish country club in southern Baltimore. The encounters he had there helped him to accept responsibility as an unmarried 17-year old father, and finally to come to terms with the death of his parents. This work is an evocative portrait of growing up black in the 1960s, and an exploration of paternalism and paternity.