The narrator of the novella, Boys, is a thirteen-year-old Chris, a member of a small gang that includes his two friends, Frank and Joey. The novella poignantly charts Chris's involvement with a girl named Lisa, his fascination with a pornographic magazine, the building of a "boys only" tree house, his traumatized relationships with Frank and Joey, and the disappearance of his sister Jenny. The twelve stories in On Monday proceed chronologically from a Monday to a Tuesday morning. Each story highlights a different character's experiences with parents, friends, teachers, the expectations of others and the expectations of a culture and an era. Characters and settings present in one story reappear in other stories, building upon and heightening the experiences of all of them. In part, an indictment of how American society shapes and misshapes its children. Boys also celebrates the creativity and wonder that are a part of adolescence.