Emanuel (Manny) takes an unnamed girl to the movies, buys her snacks and gifts, then drives her to an alley where they engage in a sexual encounter. He tells her he loves her and she says it back. When he drops her at her house, he realizes his father owns the property.

The Joker—whose real name is Midas T. Benny—sleeps in the concession stand at Dominion Field when his girlfriend refuses to take him in. He’s a short, spare man with many talents who considers this a temporary setback.

Emanuel goes to the field early for his morning workout. On the track, he encounters a stranger who matches his speed and intensity. After racing, the stranger pulls Emanuel close and kisses him. Emanuel initially does not resist but then recoils, vomiting violently and collapsing in shame and confusion. The Joker emerges from the concession stand, having witnessed the kiss. He threatens to tell Emanuel’s father unless Emanuel pays him. Enraged, Emanuel attacks the Joker, beating him unconscious and then strangling him to death. He drags the body to the restroom.

Emanuel drives to find Yancey, Diamond’s brother, and offers him money to help. When Yancey sees the body, he suggests Moon Lake, but they end up leaving the Joker in a secluded wooded area. Yancey helps Emanuel clean the restroom with bleach. Emanuel finds a notebook bearing the name “Midas T. Benny” (93) on the body. At home, he showers obsessively and falls into fitful sleep plagued by nightmares.

His mother Priscilla tends to him while he’s unwell, bringing soup and water. Yancey does drugs, his mind wandering to Diamond and their scattered family. Emanuel calls Diamond urgently. She lights a red candle for love and he comes over. They engage in a sexual encounter. Afterward, he becomes emotional and asks if she’ll love him forever, no matter what happens or what she hears. He leaves abruptly despite her pleas to stay. Over the following days, Diamond hears nothing from him. On Sunday, he’s not at church—Sabre announces he’s visiting Ole Miss, something he never told her.

On July 4, Priscilla cooks an elaborate dinner. Emanuel barely eats and is withdrawn. Sabre offers to edge his hair. That evening, while Priscilla wraps her hair and listens to gospel music, she is overcome with religious fervor. Emanuel appears in her doorway watching. She prays aloud for whatever is possessing him to be freed. When she opens her eyes, he’s gone—but her emerald earrings have been returned to the vanity.

Emanuel goes to his mother’s room intending to confess, but when he finds her praying, he simply leaves her stolen earrings on the vanity and returns to his room. Emanuel struggles with nightmares about the Joker, the stranger on the track, and his father with a leather strap. Paranoid that Yancey might tell someone, he drives around looking for him. Instead, he picks up Caticia Wooten, a quiet girl who has not graduated with her class. In the truck, he tells her he killed his dog by strangling it and watching it die. That night, he sleeps without nightmares.

The next evening, Jimmy Wooten arrives home from his casino job to find his daughter Caticia huddled in bed, her face marked with bite wounds. He takes her to the Winfreys’ house to confront them. Priscilla answers the door and initially remains composed, only reacting after seeing the girl’s injuries—a cluster of tooth marks on her cheek and a bruise extending from her shoulder to her elbow. Emanuel comes downstairs and claims that Caticia propositioned him for $75 in his truck, after which he dropped her at a house on Cherry Street where someone else must have hurt her. Jimmy becomes uncertain, not wanting his family’s name ruined. Priscilla offers to pray over them with holy oil.

After the Wootens leave, Priscilla confronts Emanuel, asking if he hurt Caticia. He responds ambiguously, asking whether she thinks he did it, then says that is not all he has to tell her. She tells him not to leave the house, but he goes to lift weights. She searches his room and finds the weather-beaten notebook labeled “Tales of a Joker, by Midas T. Benny” (122), recognizing the name from Tyrone Benny. She also discovers a locked box containing eight numbered, sealed envelopes, noting that one of them contains something fabric-like.

On July 6, Diamond tries to cope with Emanuel’s absence by skating and running. That evening, he calls and appears at her door looking sick. He says he’s in serious trouble and leaving town, asking if she’d go with him. She immediately agrees and packs. They leave Dominion heading south on Highway 49. While they are driving, she discovers a gun in his glove compartment; their first stop is about two and a half hours later at a gas station in Greenville. He tells her she needs to learn how to use it.

When Sabre arrives home, Priscilla tries to tell him about the Wooten incident, but he dismisses her concerns. He suggests the girl might be lying and calls it “boys being boys” (128). When Priscilla insists something is seriously wrong with Emanuel, Sabre asks if she’s had too many pills. She urges him to act before it’s too late, but he responds by asking her to find him a scripture and type up a sermon.