Maggie and Hubert, newlyweds, agree they will not have sex and discuss finding a man outside town to father Maggie's child.

Maggie goes alone to a bar in Needham, meets a man named Scotty, and has an unsatisfying sexual encounter with him.

Maggie meets kind, fatherly Randolph Webb at a bar, goes home with him, and begins regular visits under the false name Louise.

Maggie visits the clinic for Black patients and learns she is pregnant; she rushes to find Hubert and share the joyful news.

Maggie gives birth to a son, Claude, two days after her eighteenth birthday.

Maggie finds work doing laundry for Mrs. Dowler, an elderly white widow who treats Maggie as a companion and equal.

Jessie tells Maggie that Claude is romantically involved with Daisy Compton, an older woman with a dangerous reputation in the community.

Claude announces he intends to marry Daisy and moves into her home, devastating Maggie and Hubert.

Daisy tells Maggie directly that she manipulated Claude into proposing and plans to cut him off completely from his family.

Maggie takes Daisy blackberry picking, strikes her over the head with a plank, and pushes her body into an abandoned well.

Oswald, Mrs. Dowler's brother, sexually assaults Maggie and threatens to have her fired if she does not comply.

Maggie drives the hearse to Mrs. Dowler's house while she is at church and suffocates the sleeping Oswald with a pillow.

Mrs. Dowler suffers a breakdown after Oswald's death and her son takes her to Atlanta, leaving Maggie without a job.

Hubert tells Maggie he wants to leave their marriage, come out to his parents, and live openly with his lover Daryl.

Claude accidentally eats the arsenic-laced gumbo Maggie prepared for Hubert, dies, and Maggie then eats arsenic to end her own life.

The novel opens with Maggie and Hubert forming an unconventional marriage built on mutual protection and a shared desire for a child. Maggie successfully becomes pregnant by Randolph Webb and gives birth to Claude, who becomes the absolute center of her world. Decades later, a job with the generous Mrs. Dowler marks the high point of Maggie's life, just as Claude becomes entangled with the manipulative Daisy Compton. Maggie resorts to murder to free Claude from Daisy's grip, then kills again when Mrs. Dowler's brother sexually assaults her. As the consequences of her choices accumulate, Maggie's attempt to silence Hubert's wish to leave their marriage ends in the accidental poisoning of her beloved son. With Claude gone, Maggie takes arsenic herself, bringing the tragedy full circle.

The headline events that define Maggie's story from marriage to tragedy.

Hubert proposes that he and Maggie marry, promising no sexual relations but offering each other companionship and protection from social judgment.

Mr. Royster, a friend of Maggie's father, sexually abuses Maggie for years and forces her to miscarry a pregnancy at eleven.

Hubert and Maggie's first visit to a Toxey bar to find a prospect fails because no man approaches Maggie with Hubert nearby.

Jessie Tucker befriends Maggie after her marriage and helps her find a job at the restaurant where Jessie works.

Randolph asks Maggie to move in with him, deepening the deception and making her anxious to confirm a pregnancy as quickly as possible.

Maggie's father dies of a sudden seizure and her mother dies in the influenza epidemic, leaving Maggie without any living blood relatives.

Jessie gives birth to Earl with a difficult labor; Orville arrives home and demands Jessie get up immediately to cook his dinner.

Earl is diagnosed with intellectual disabilities; Orville blames Jessie for this and reveals he has another son by a different woman.

Maggie attempts to befriend Daisy, who visits Maggie's home, eats her food, and asks for cash rather than a friendly lunch.

Claude arrives at Maggie's door with a torn shirt and a head wound, reporting that Daisy attacked him in a rage.

Maggie forges a note in Daisy's handwriting claiming she left town to reunite with an ex-boyfriend, then burns Daisy's clothes.

At a Mobile restaurant, Maggie spots Randolph, Claude's biological father, and pretends not to recognize him to protect her secret.

Orville attacks and attempts to choke Jessie; Maggie decides to poison him and sets aside a special bowl of gumbo for him.

Claude marries Maybelle Gardner, a young woman from a respectable family; Maggie enjoys the reception and approves of the match.

Hubert watches Daryl confess his relationship to Daryl's wife, who is furious; Daryl's children say they never want to see him again.

Before their marriage, Maggie endured years of sexual abuse by Mr. Royster that left her grateful for Hubert's offer of a safe, companionate union. The early years of married life bring friendship with Jessie Tucker and the joy of Claude's birth, though Jessie's difficult marriage to the abusive Orville stands in sharp contrast to Maggie's relative contentment. Maggie's attempts to manage Claude's relationship with Daisy reveal Daisy's calculating nature and Claude's vulnerability, while Maggie works carefully to cover her tracks after Daisy's murder. A chance encounter with Randolph at a Mobile restaurant underscores the web of secrets Maggie must constantly maintain. As Maggie eliminates further threats to her family's peace, Claude finds genuine happiness in his marriage to Maybelle, even as Hubert's relationship with Daryl moves toward an inevitable reckoning.

The supporting events and relationships that shape Maggie's world.

Twelve-year-old Hubert confides his attraction to boys to Maggie; she reveals her abuse by Royster, and they vow to protect each other.

After confirming her pregnancy, Maggie abruptly stops all contact with Randolph, ending their arrangement without any explanation to him.

Uncle Roscoe dies and leaves Hubert his funeral home and house, providing the young couple with a new home and steady income.

Mrs. Dowler advises Maggie not to interfere in Claude's relationship with Daisy, warning that meddling will only push him closer to her.

Oswald arrives at Mrs. Dowler's house and immediately behaves in a threatening, predatory manner toward Maggie, warning her not to steal from him.

Convinced that no other solution will free Claude from Daisy's controlling grip, Maggie makes the decision to murder Daisy.

After Oswald sexually assaults Maggie a second time at Mrs. Dowler's, she resolves to kill him and begins planning his death.

Orville's death is officially ruled a heart attack; mourners at his funeral openly express relief that he is finally gone.

Mason Burris throws a rock at Maggie; his wife then reveals that the Ku Klux Klan lynched their eldest son, explaining his violence.

Maggie receives a new job offer just as her financial situation has grown desperate after losing her position with Mrs. Dowler.

Hubert compares their marriage to a splinter embedded under his skin and refuses all of Maggie's desperate pleas to reconsider.

Hubert's refusal to reconsider leaving the marriage leads Maggie to conclude that his fate is sealed and she will poison him.

Maggie stirs arsenic into a bowl of gumbo she sets aside for Hubert, then drives away aimlessly while he is expected home.

Hubert tells Maggie that Claude came to the house, heated the bowl of gumbo left for Hubert, and died from it.

Overwhelmed with grief and guilt for killing her son, Maggie laces a fresh bowl of gumbo with arsenic and eats it.

The foundations of Maggie and Hubert's bond are laid in childhood, when a shared secret creates a lifelong alliance between two outsiders. Uncle Roscoe's death gives the couple financial stability, but Mrs. Dowler's wise counsel urging Maggie not to interfere in Claude's life goes unheeded as Daisy's threat grows unbearable. Maggie's decisions to kill Daisy and then Oswald mark the point at which she begins treating murder as a practical tool, and the elimination of Orville and Mason Burris follows the same ruthless logic. When Hubert's refusal to stay in their marriage cannot be moved, Maggie makes her most reckless choice, and the moment Hubert reveals that Claude ate the poisoned gumbo becomes the turning point from which there is no return. Maggie's final act of eating arsenic is the tragic culmination of a life in which protecting appearances cost her everything she loved.