With their mother caring for relatives in Israel and their father driving a cab all hours of the day, Roxanne and her sister, Gayle, spend a lot of time watching television reruns of Little House on the Prairie, The Brady Bunch, and Wonder Woman - perfect examples of perfect Americans. Roxanne is desperate to be like them. When Liat, a fellow Israeli, moves into the Cursed House next door, things begin to change and Roxanne realizes that maybe real life isn't like TV - maybe its even better. The novel is set on Staten Island, New York, in the early 1980s.