Jason "Igby" Slocumb Jr. is a misanthropic 17-year-old boy, rebelling against the oppressive world of his strict East Coast "old money" family. Igby fears that he will eventually suffer a mental breakdown like his schizophrenic father, Jason, who has been committed to an institution. His mother, Mimi, is self-absorbed and distant and tends to drink heavily. Igby mockingly describes his ambitious older brother Ollie as a fascist or a Young Republican who studies "neo-fascism" (economics) at Columbia University.