Luther Nedeed locks his wife and infant son in the mansion basement, suspecting his wife of adultery because the child appears white.

Willie Mason and Lester Tilson visit Norman and Ruth Anderson's sparse apartment on Wayne Avenue before setting off to find work.

Ruth Anderson suggests that Willie and Lester look for odd jobs in Linden Hills to earn Christmas money.

Willie and Lester work as kitchen helpers at Winston Alcott's wedding reception in Linden Hills.

Luther Nedeed offers Winston Alcott and his new bride a mortgage for a home on prestigious Tupelo Drive.

Willie and Lester clean out a garage at Xavier Donnell's aunt's house and are introduced to Maxwell Smyth.

Willie and Lester strip wallpaper at Mr. Parker's home on Fourth Crescent Drive while residents eat dinner below.

Willie wakes from a nightmare still tasting the suspiciously perfect cake Luther Nedeed brought to Mr. Parker's dinner.

Willie and Lester help Reverend Hollis transport food drive donations, and Willie confronts the reverend directly about his drinking.

White police officers draw their guns on Willie and Lester and demand to know what they are doing in Linden Hills.

Norman Anderson falsely tells police that Willie and Lester were hired by Mrs. Dumont, preventing their arrest.

Luther Nedeed visits Laurel Dumont and tells her she must vacate her Tupelo Drive house because her husband has filed for divorce.

Laurel Dumont changes into her silver bathing suit, climbs the diving board, and leaps into her empty swimming pool.

Willie accidentally slides the bolt on the basement door while visiting the Nedeed mansion, unknowingly freeing Willa Nedeed.

Willa Nedeed emerges from the basement with her dead son, the Nedeeds fall into the lit Christmas tree, and the mansion burns.

Willie Mason and Lester Tilson, two unemployed young poets from Wayne Avenue, spend the week before Christmas looking for odd jobs in the affluent Linden Hills neighborhood. As they work their way down through the community, they witness the hollow lives of residents who have sacrificed everything for status and a prestigious address on Tupelo Drive. Meanwhile, Luther Nedeed has imprisoned his wife and child in his mansion basement on suspicion of adultery, a cruel secret festering at the heart of the glittering neighborhood. The friends encounter residents including Winston Alcott, who trades love for a Tupelo Drive address, and Laurel Dumont, whose purposeless life ends in suicide. After working their way down to the Nedeed mansion on Christmas Eve, Willie accidentally frees Willa Nedeed, whose emergence triggers the fire that destroys the mansion and the Nedeed dynasty. The two friends walk out of Linden Hills together, having survived their descent through its circles of hell.

The headline events of Willie and Lester's descent through Linden Hills.

The original Luther Nedeed purchases disputed land in Wayne County, sits vigil for seven days, then opens an undertaker's business.

A later Luther Nedeed founds the Tupelo Realty Corporation to construct homes and vet applicants for the Linden Hills neighborhood.

Willie and Lester's overnight stay at the Tilson house ends in an argument that exposes the sharp contrast between their upbringings.

Willie and Lester hear a long, thin wail rising from Linden Hills just before they fall asleep at the Tilson house.

Willa Nedeed cradles her dead son's body in the basement while Luther sits upstairs drinking brandy and blaming her for his loneliness.

Winston Alcott's father warns him that rumors of homosexuality could end his legal career and cost him his place in Linden Hills.

David delivers a best man speech at Winston Alcott's wedding that sounds more like a final farewell than a celebration.

Xavier Donnell invites Maxwell Smyth to his home for drinks and seeks advice about whether to pursue marriage with Roxanne Tilson.

Willa discovers Luwana Packerville's handwritten bible in the basement and recognizes her own loneliness mirrored in the earlier Nedeed wife's words.

Luther Nedeed arrives at Mr. Parker's dinner and presents a prewrapped store-bought cake as one his wife baked at home.

Willa discovers Evelyn Creton's meticulous recipe notes and realizes Evelyn secretly added unusual ingredients to food to try to transform her husband's coldness.

Reverend Hollis delivers a stirring sermon at Mrs. Parker's funeral, but the Linden Hills congregation sits through it in unmoved silence.

Laurel Dumont's grandmother cries out her name from an upstairs window as Willie and Lester discover Laurel's body in the empty pool.

Daniel Braithwaite invites a shaken Willie and Lester into his home to warm up after witnessing Laurel Dumont's suicide.

Willie and Lester watch firefighters carry a single fused mass from the burned Nedeed mansion instead of three separate bodies.

The story of Linden Hills begins with the original Luther Nedeed's purchase of disputed land and his vision for a proud black community, a dream gradually corrupted into the exclusive and status-obsessed neighborhood of the present. Willie and Lester's week in Linden Hills brings them into contact with characters whose struggles illuminate the neighborhood's spiritual emptiness, from Winston Alcott's doomed wedding to Reverend Hollis's failed sermon before a plastic congregation. In the basement, Willa Nedeed uncovers the histories of previous Nedeed wives, finding in their writings a mirror for her own oppression and isolation. Seemingly small moments — a store-bought cake passed off as homemade, a grandmother crying out a girl's name from an upstairs window — reveal the gulf between Linden Hills' polished surface and its rotten core. After Laurel Dumont's suicide, historian Daniel Braithwaite invites the shaken young men inside, offering a cold-eyed analysis of the neighborhood's inevitable decay. The novel ends with fire consuming the Nedeed mansion and firefighters carrying from its ruins what remains of an entire dynasty.

The backstory, secondary characters, and surrounding moments of Linden Hills.

Ruth Anderson explains that after her first marriage ended, she chose Norman and Wayne Avenue over returning to Linden Hills.

Willie challenges Lester, pointing out that despite his constant complaints about his family, Lester has chosen to keep living at home.

Winston Alcott chooses career security and a Tupelo Drive address over leaving Linden Hills with his long-term partner David.

Willie observes at the wedding reception that the guests are performing rather than celebrating, and that the groom Winston is silently drowning.

Luther Nedeed sends water down to Willa in the basement, a small act of acknowledgment that stops far short of freeing her.

Maxwell Smyth explains to Xavier that he has spent his entire life eliminating visible traces of his racial identity to gain power.

Maxwell Smyth advises Xavier not to marry any woman who thinks independently, revealing his deep contempt for ambitious women.

Willie argues against Maxwell's claim that poverty in black communities reflects personal failure rather than systemic and historical forces.

Willa discovers Priscilla McGuire's family photo album and sees how Priscilla's face gradually disappears from the images across twenty years.

Willie spots Luther Nedeed's distinctive triangular footprints in the snow beside the pool, realizing Nedeed watched Laurel die and did nothing.

Daniel Braithwaite argues that Nedeed could not have saved Laurel, as her death was the inevitable result of Linden Hills' spiritual emptiness.

Willa Nedeed, alone in the basement, accepts responsibility for her situation and resolves to walk up the concrete stairs on her own terms.

Luther Nedeed reflects alone on Christmas Eve that he can already foresee Winston Alcott breaking down on Tupelo Drive, just as Laurel did.

Willie catches a glimpse in a mirror of Willa Nedeed's matted hair and sunken face as she holds her dead son.

Willie and Lester walk hand anchored to hand up out of Tupelo Drive, completing their ascent from Linden Hills together.

The emotional core of Linden Hills lies in the choices its characters make and the truths they are forced to confront. Willie and Lester's friendship is itself a quiet act of resistance against the neighborhood's values, as both young men see the costs of the Linden Hills dream more clearly than the residents living it. From Winston Alcott's decision to choose status over love to Maxwell Smyth's lifelong effort to erase his own racial identity, the novel traces a series of fateful compromises that hollow people from the inside out. Down in the basement, Willa Nedeed's journey through the histories of previous Nedeed wives culminates in a powerful act of self-recovery, as she accepts her own responsibility and resolves to climb the stairs on her own terms. The final revelations — that Nedeed watched Laurel Dumont die without intervening, that he privately foresees Winston's coming breakdown, that Willie glimpses Willa before the fire takes her — expose the true price of the Linden Hills dream. Willie and Lester emerge hand in hand, having witnessed but not succumbed to the corruption surrounding them.