In the story, Gordon LaChance is an adult writer who, after hearing of the tragic death of a close friend, is poignantly reminded of a boyhood journey that he and three friends made to find the dead body of a missing boy.
Gordie as a teenager was the intellectual of his group of friends, wrote imaginative short stories, and aspired to be a writer. His older brother, Denny, had just died a few months ago and felt invisible and neglected by his grieving parents.
In the film adaptation of The Body, "Stand By Me," the teenage Gordie Lachance is played by Wil Wheaton and the adult Gordon LaChance is played by Richard Dreyfuss.