Chabot, Mississippi, 1970s: The white boy Larry Ott and the black boy Silas Jones are friends. They roam the forests, catch snakes, hunt, and fish. Their friendship ends when a girl disappears without a trace and Larry is suspected of murder, though he is not convicted. From then on, their life paths diverge. After a stint in the army, Larry returns to Chabot to run his father's auto shop, stigmatized and socially isolated. When another girl goes missing and Larry again comes under scrutiny from the authorities, it is Silas, who returns to Chabot as a police officer after 25 years, who takes up the investigation. Scenes from their repressed past alternate with the current murder investigation. The tension in this novel about the American South is based not only on typical elements.