The unnamed narrator of the story, a young girl, introduces the reader to the six awful Herdman children: Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys. As a brief introduction, she relates the story of the Herdmans playing with a stolen “young Einstein” chemistry set (2). When Leroy mixed the powders wrong and lit them on fire, it caused a fire that burned down Fred Shoemaker’s decrepit, rat-infested tool house. The fire chief lectured a group of kids about safety. The Herdmans learned only that a disaster could lead to free donuts, which had been brought for the firefighters.

The narrator doesn’t understand why the Herdmans lingered on the scene since they were probably guilty. Her father said it was the only good thing the Herdsman kids ever did because the tool house was ugly and dangerous.

The Herdmans live above an unused garage at the bottom of Sproul Hill. They don’t know where their father is. He left them early on, and Mrs. Herdsman works at the shoe factory. She tells Miss Phillips, a social worker, that she’d rather work than be with her kids.

They have rocks and poison ivy for a yard and a “BEWARE OF CAT” sign.