Tommy Gallagher has fallen behind in high school because of time spent caring for his ailing mother, Nancy. Now nearing his twenty-first birthday, Tommy wants desperately to graduate. When he asks his English teacher, Sean Jones, to help him bring his grades up, the two become emotionally and physically involved. Scared and confused, Tommy ends up dating Brenda Duvall, who suspects something is going on between Tommy and his teacher and threatens to expose them. In alternating chapters, we are exposed to Nancy's tragic love affair with Tommy's father and the deep abiding love Nancy shares with her son. Although often sexually graphic, Tommy, set in Northern Maine on the Canadian border, is a novel about real people with complex family ties and deep emotions held in check by great dignity. It will break your heart.