Claire is 10 and the only student at her school who is not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is constantly at odds with her classmates and her teachers because of her atheism, and because she does not know when to keep quiet about her outsider opinions, she often gets herself into trouble. In an effort to fit in more effectively, Claire decides to convert. She makes a concerted effort to spend time with her classmates in order to absorb their faith by sheer proximity. She is ashamed of her own family’s obvious differences from the others in their community; her stepfather is an academic, and they watch foreign films and eat a range of international foods. She does not mention any of this when she visits friends who are Latter-day Saints. Claire’s father lives in San Diego. He is an angry, volatile man who cycles in and out of sobriety. Claire does not feel a connection to him, nor does she enjoy visiting him in the summer.

Claire meets a girl named Morgan who attends a different school but only lives a few blocks away. Because Morgan and her family have a messy house and are not particularly religious, Claire is shocked to find out that they are also Latter-day Saints.