There's Vinnie, the gang leader, and his best friend and sidekick Sean. Skip and Dick are, respectively, the errand boys and the muscle of the gang. And there's Vinnie's younger brother Kyle, whom Vinnie raised from a baby after his stepfather took off and his mother died of drug addiction. Vinnie also has a neat girlfriend, Sandy. Kyle is gay and getting it on with Sean.
Trouble is just around the corner.
Trouble happens, but with a long fuse. Things aren't over when Vinnie finds that Sean's been screwing his baby brother and beats him to a pulp. This isn't the story a westerner expects to be reading, because as per the title, the relationship we get to look at most closely is that between the two brothers. The book seemed a little lopsided and disappointing to me first time. But once you look at it from the proper perspective, things fall more into place.