The novel starts off with Billy, a writer who is a sports fanatic, game freak, and an army discharge. As the narrator of the book, he talks about his struggles in grade school and about a specific teacher, called Miss (Antonia) Roginski. This man had struggled in her class with tests and readings. He always thought of her as a mother figure, even though she thought he was a late bloomer.
He is nearly completing his book and decides to send her a copy for an opinion on it. He fears, and was saddened, that she would not remember him. He later finds out that she does, when the back of the post card wrote, “idiot”.
Another flashback begins, and he talks about how he was not able to tune into a football game. His mother repeated answers that they don’t broadcast the games on Friday, just Saturdays. Frustrated and delirious, he ends up catching pneumonia and becomes sick in bed for over a month, which means no games or football.
His father introduced him to “The Princess Bride” while he was still just a “lump in bed going through a strength gathering time period”. His father actually was an immigrant from Florin, and is “near illiterate” in the English language. But for the first time in his life, he got hooked on the book.
Each night, his father read to him, chapter by chapter, always trying to sound the word properly. He read the book twice to him over a month’s time. The narrator could’ve read it himself if he wanted to, but he wanted his father’s voice. Through another flashback, Roginski notices Billy blooming, as he showed interests in reading adventure stories.
Billy’s wife is Helen, who is a psychiatrist. They have a fat son named Jason. Billy remembers when Jason was turning 10 and wanted to get him the book that he fell in love with- “The Princess Bride”. Jason did not like it. In another flashback, Billy discovers that his father summarized