Warĩĩnga is fired from her secretarial job at Champion Construction Company after rejecting her employer's sexual advances.

Warĩĩnga's boyfriend John Kĩmwana breaks up with her, falsely accusing her of sleeping with her boss.

Landlord's hired goons throw Warĩĩnga's belongings onto the street after she refuses to pay an increased rent.

A young man on the roadside hands Warĩĩnga an invitation to a Devil's Feast competition in Ilmorog.

Warĩĩnga boards Mwaũra's decrepit matatũ to Ilmorog alongside Mũturi, Wangarĩ, Gatuĩria, and Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ.

The matatũ passengers arrive in Ilmorog and enter a cave where the Devil's Feast competition is being held.

The master of ceremonies delivers a speech framing Kenya's colonial history as justification for the competition's goals.

An American delegate explains the International Organization of Thieves and Robbers and promises rewards to seven chosen disciples.

Gĩtutu wa Gataangũrũ testifies about profiting from post-Mau Mau land speculation and proposes selling bottled air to the poor.

Wangarĩ refuses to re-enter the cave and decides to report the gathering of thieves to the police.

Mũturi goes into town to organize local workers and peasants to march on the cave and confront the thieves.

A procession of workers arrives at the cave, sending the assembled thieves and robbers fleeing in panic as cars burn.

Mũturi secretly passes Warĩĩnga a gun for safekeeping, revealing he is a delegate from a secret workers' organization.

Warĩĩnga and her fiancé Gatuĩria arrive at his family home in Nakuru to find the Devil's Feast thieves among the guests.

Warĩĩnga shoots the Rich Old Man three times and wounds Kĩhaahu and Gĩtutu in the knees before walking away alone.

The novel follows Jacinta Warĩĩnga, who loses her job, boyfriend, and home in a single day due to the exploitation of powerful men. Seeking refuge by returning to her hometown of Ilmorog, she joins other passengers on a matatũ and discovers they are all invited to a bizarre competition called the Devil's Feast, where thieves and robbers boast of their methods. At the feast, Warĩĩnga and her fellow passengers witness grotesque displays of capitalist exploitation, but two of them — Wangarĩ and Mũturi — decide to act, contacting the police and organizing workers respectively. The workers' march on the cave disrupts the feast, and Mũturi entrusts Warĩĩnga with a gun before his arrest. Years later, transformed into a confident mechanical engineer engaged to Gatuĩria, Warĩĩnga travels to meet his family, only to discover devastating truths about her past. She responds with an act of violent retribution, shooting her long-time oppressor before walking away alone into an uncertain future.

The core story of Warĩĩnga's journey from exploitation to violent reckoning.

The Gĩcaandĩ Player fasts for seven days, receives a prophecy from a booming voice, and agrees to narrate Warĩĩnga's story.

Feeling desperate after losing her job and home, Warĩĩnga considers suicide on the road but a mysterious inner voice stops her.

The matatũ passengers collectively pay Wangarĩ's fare after Mwaũra threatens to eject her for having no money.

Wangarĩ tells the other passengers how she was arrested for vagrancy in Nairobi while simply looking for work to repay a debt.

Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ reveals his differently-worded invitation and claims the Devil references were planted by opposition university students.

A petty thief named Ndaaya wa Kahuria is mocked and expelled from the competition for stealing far below the million-dollar threshold.

Kĩhaahu wa Gatheeca testifies about building European-style nursery schools and using bribery and violence to enter politics.

A dispute among competitors escalates until Gĩtutu, Kĩhaahu, and Ithe wa Mbooi draw guns at each other inside the cave.

During the feast intermission, Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria eat roasted meat in town while he refuses to reveal his father's name.

Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ testifies in favor of domestic over foreign theft, prompting the American delegate to threaten to withdraw and leave.

Nditika wa Ngũũnji testifies about his smuggling empire and proposes building a factory to manufacture spare human body parts.

Mwaũra testifies at the trial of Mũturi and Wangarĩ, twisting the events of the workers' march to portray them as instigators.

All charges against Mũturi, Wangarĩ, and the student leader are dismissed, but soldiers re-arrest Mũturi and Wangarĩ outside the courthouse.

Warĩĩnga arrives at work to discover the garage has been sold to her former harassing boss and a group of foreign investors.

Warĩĩnga breaks into tears at Ilmorog Park when she realizes she must return to Nakuru, where she once attempted suicide.

The story of Devil on the Cross is framed by the Gĩcaandĩ Player, a traditional storyteller who fasts and receives a prophecy before agreeing to narrate Warĩĩnga's tale. Along her journey, Warĩĩnga encounters fellow passengers whose own stories illuminate the broader landscape of exploitation in Kenya, including Wangarĩ's unjust arrest for vagrancy and Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ's provocative defense of modern capitalism. At the Devil's Feast, the competition features increasingly absurd testimonies from thieves and robbers, punctuated by internal arguments and moments of near-violence among the participants. After the feast is disrupted, a corrupt trial follows in which Mwaũra's false testimony nearly convicts Mũturi and Wangarĩ, who are re-arrested by soldiers despite having their charges dismissed. In the years following the feast, Warĩĩnga rebuilds her life as an engineer, though exploitation follows her when her workplace is sold to her former harassing boss. The pool closes as Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria travel toward his family home in Nakuru, carrying the weight of everything they have survived.

The people and details that flesh out Warĩĩnga's world.

Warĩĩnga experiences a vision of the Devil being crucified by a crowd, then taken down and revered, his evil spreading to bystanders.

Gatuĩria discovers a Devil's Feast invitation in his luggage, causing a frightened Warĩĩnga to collapse and need reviving by the other passengers.

Mũturi argues that all humans carry two hearts — one shaped by exploitation and one shaped by productive labor.

Gatuĩria describes his years-long quest to compose music that authentically represents the Kenyan people and resists foreign cultural domination.

Warĩĩnga tells Gatuĩria her life story, including how her uncle secretly offered her to the Rich Old Man when she was a student.

The Rich Old Man abandons Warĩĩnga after she becomes pregnant, accusing her of infidelity and ending their exploitative arrangement.

A teenage Warĩĩnga attempts to drown herself in a school swimming pool but is rescued by a security guard later revealed as Mũturi.

Mwaũra returns to the cave and warns Warĩĩnga and Gatuĩria that Wangarĩ has gone to the police and Mũturi has gone to gather workers.

Alone beneath a tree, Warĩĩnga is confronted by a mysterious voice that offers her wealth and power if she joins its followers.

The mysterious voice reveals that Mwaũra was once a colonial-era contract killer paid a bounty for every Mau Mau fighter he killed.

Warĩĩnga identifies the voice as Satan, rejects its offer of riches, and awakens from her trance beneath the tree.

Police arrive at the cave and arrest Wangarĩ for spreading rumors while allowing the actual thieves and robbers to go unpunished.

Warĩĩnga learns that Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ was killed in a car accident the previous night, with Mwaũra surviving unharmed.

Warĩĩnga walks into Gatuĩria's family home and recognizes his father as the Rich Old Man who sexually exploited her as a teenager.

Gatuĩria stands frozen in the yard after the shooting, unable to choose between attending to his dying father and following Warĩĩnga.

From a haunting vision of the Devil revered rather than condemned, the novel tracks the key moments of insight and transformation that shape Warĩĩnga's journey. On the matatũ, philosophical debates about good and evil and Gatuĩria's quest for authentic Kenyan music reveal the deeper ideological stakes of the story. During the feast's intermission, Warĩĩnga shares her traumatic past with Gatuĩria — including how she was exploited by the Rich Old Man, abandoned when pregnant, and nearly took her own life twice. At the feast, a mysterious voice identifies itself as Satan and offers Warĩĩnga wealth and power before she firmly rejects the temptation, and the corrupt arrest of Wangarĩ exposes the justice system's complicity in exploitation. The death of Mwĩreri wa Mũkiraaĩ — killed in a car driven by the sinister Mwaũra — confirms the deadly stakes of dissent within the exploiters' circle. The pool culminates in the devastating revelation that Gatuĩria's father is Warĩĩnga's old abuser, leading to a confrontation that leaves Gatuĩria frozen between loyalty to his dying father and love for Warĩĩnga.