Love and relationships play a large role in Sexing the Cherry. The Dog-Woman finds Jordan on the banks of a river when he is a baby, and she takes him home to raise him. Her witch neighbor helps her clean him and predicts that he will make his adoptive mother love him, only to break her heart. She also predicts that many women will desire Jordan's heart but he will only give it to one who will spurn it. The Dog-Woman's flashbacks to her childhood reveal a lack of parental love in her youth, and her only experience in romantic love leaves her feeling rejected and thus rejecting love thenceforth.