This story started to take place on March 5, 1973 in Dale City, California. It further continued on as the main character gets older.
There’s a little boy named David that gets beaten daily. His father is a fireman so he’s always gone. David’s mother had two other sons and treats them good. Then there’s David. The mother treats him like nothing. She rarely ever feeds him and she beats him for whatever he does wrong. She beats him for trying to feed himself because she starvs him. He has to sleep out in the garage every night. His mother finds new ways to torture her son and even calls him by “the boy” or it. Her beatings and abuse have gotten out of control and David is at risk of life or death.
Dave Pelzer was the third-born of five children (Ronald, Stan, Russell, and Kevin). His father was a fireman and, according to Dave, his mother was originally a loving, kind and wonderful person.
The book states that around the time that the author turned five, things within the family slowly began to change. While his father was away at work often, his mother became an alcoholic. The author's mother has claimed that Dave was so badly behaved that he required punishment. The summer before Dave started kindergarten his mother reportedly beat him, dislocating his shoulder. The book goes on to describe a period of mixed emotions over the following few years with the increasingly abusive and damaging behavior from Ms. Roerva gradually ostracizing Dave from the rest of the family.
The book describes the worsening abuse which Pelzer suffered at the hand of his mother and her alcoholism. Among the many incidents discussed is that Ms. Roerva attempted to burn Dave on a stove when he was eight years old. She also stabbed him in the stomach, and did not take him to the hospital. By this point he was no longer considered as part of the family