Jojo slaughters a goat with Pop on his 13th birthday but gets sick and has to go inside.

Leonie receives a phone call from Michael announcing he will be released from Parchman prison.

Leonie gets high with Misty and sees the ghost of her murdered brother Given appear before her.

Pop urges Leonie not to bring her children to Parchman, but Leonie insists on going.

Leonie and Misty stop at a rundown house and pick up a bag of meth before continuing north.

Kayla develops a fever and vomits repeatedly during the long drive north toward Parchman.

Leonie and Michael reunite passionately at Parchman prison after his three-year sentence ends.

Richie's ghost appears outside Jojo's car window at Parchman and says he is going home.

When a police officer pulls the family over, Leonie swallows the bag of meth whole to hide it.

The policeman draws his gun and forces Jojo to the ground during the roadside traffic stop.

Big Joseph insults Leonie and her children at his front door, and he and Michael begin fighting.

Mam tells Leonie that her death is near and begs her to summon the spirit to guide her to the afterlife.

Pop confesses to Jojo that he tracked down and killed Richie himself to spare the boy from a lynch mob.

Given's spirit overpowers Richie and escorts Mam peacefully to the afterlife as she draws her last breath.

Kayla walks toward a tree full of trapped spirits and sings to them, bringing the ghosts visible comfort.

Sing, Unburied, Sing opens on Jojo's thirteenth birthday in Bois Sauvage, where his grandmother Mam is dying and his mother Leonie is deep in addiction. When Leonie learns her boyfriend Michael is being released from Parchman prison, she insists on driving north with Jojo and toddler Kayla to collect him, despite Pop's objections. The road trip is dangerous — the family transports meth, Kayla falls gravely ill, and a police officer nearly shoots Jojo during a traffic stop. At Parchman, the ghost of Richie, a boy who died there decades earlier, attaches himself to Jojo, hoping to learn the truth about his own death. After a violent confrontation at Michael's parents' house, the family returns to find Mam near the end; she asks Leonie to summon the spirit that will guide her to the afterlife, and Given's ghost appears to escort her peacefully away. In the novel's final scene, Kayla sings to a tree full of trapped spirits, offering them the first glimpse of comfort and rest.

The core journey — Michael's release, the road trip, and Mam's death.

Pop tells Jojo that his brother Stag's brawl with a white man led to both brothers being imprisoned at Parchman.

Pop describes meeting Richie at Parchman — a 12-year-old imprisoned for stealing food to feed his siblings.

The family gathers in Mam's bedroom to celebrate Jojo's birthday with a store-bought baby shower cake.

Big Joseph spots Leonie leaving a note in his mailbox and chases her off his property with a rifle.

Jojo discovers a gris-gris bag hidden in his clothing during the long drive north to Parchman.

At a roadside stop, Jojo watches a mother beat her young son and glimpses Fred cooking meth in the shed.

Leonie searches the roadside for medicinal plants and brews a blackberry remedy to treat Kayla's vomiting.

The group spends the night at Michael's lawyer Al's home while Leonie, Misty, and Al get high together.

Jojo secretly makes Kayla vomit up Leonie's blackberry remedy, fearing the mixture will make her sicker.

Jojo squints at the Parchman fields and briefly sees a vision of rows of men bent over picking cotton.

Michael mixes charcoal with milk and forces Leonie to drink it until she vomits the swallowed meth bag.

After the disaster at Big Joseph's house, the whole family returns to Leonie's parents' home.

Michael slaps Kayla to quiet her at breakfast; Jojo immediately intervenes and takes Kayla outside.

Leonie walks to the cemetery and collects stones from the graves to build an altar for Mam's death ritual.

Jojo realizes the late-night voice he hears from Pop's room is Pop talking aloud to Mam's spirit.

While the main plot follows Leonie and Jojo's road trip to Parchman, a rich layer of secondary events builds the world around them. Pop's stories reveal how he and his brother Stag ended up imprisoned at Parchman, and how Pop first met the boy Richie, who quickly became someone he felt bound to protect. The drive north is filled with small but significant moments: Jojo finds a protective gris-gris bag hidden in his clothes, the family stops at a drug dealer's chaotic home, and Leonie's attempt to treat Kayla's illness with a half-remembered herbal remedy nearly goes dangerously wrong. Back in Bois Sauvage, Michael's failure as a father becomes clear when he strikes Kayla, and Leonie prepares a voodoo altar at great emotional cost to help her mother die in peace. The novel closes quietly but hauntingly, with Jojo realizing that Pop, now widowed, is still speaking to Mam's spirit every night.

Hidden moments — backstory, the road's dangers, and the weight of grief.

Mam accepts Leonie's decision to fetch Michael from prison, quietly telling her you love who you love.

Leonie recalls how Michael lost his welding job in the Deepwater Horizon explosion and began cooking meth.

Richie narrates waking after his death in a stand of pine trees, disoriented and unable to remember how he died.

A white snake transforms into a vulture-like bird and gives Richie a scale that allows him to fly toward Parchman.

Richie recognizes Jojo as Pop's grandson by his resemblance, his scent, and his fierce protectiveness of Kayla.

Pop uses his position as dog keeper to have the predatory inmate Hogjaw removed from supervising Richie.

A woman called Sunshine Woman visits Parchman and warns Pop and Richie about a recent lynching, urging them to go north.

Mam tells Jojo that Leonie has never had a mothering instinct and assures him he will never be like her.

Richie pressures Jojo to ask Pop to tell the full story of Richie's death, believing the truth will free him.

Richie has a vision of a golden, song-filled land across a vast ocean — a paradise he cannot reach.

Richie enters Mam's room and tries to claim her as his own mother as she lies dying, while Given fights him off.

Jojo lashes out at Leonie after Mam's death, accusing her of having let Mam die.

Leonie tells Jojo that Mam herself had asked to be helped to die, calling it the first right thing she ever did for her.

Jojo encounters Richie sleeping at the foot of a tree in the woods and learns Richie is still unable to cross over.

Richie shows Jojo a tree crowded with spirits of those who died violently, all of them trapped between worlds.

Pool 3 traces the novel's most emotionally charged discoveries, beginning with Mam's quiet acceptance of Leonie's choices and the revelation of how Michael's addiction began after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The supernatural dimension opens fully when Richie narrates his own afterlife: waking in pine trees with no memory of his death, receiving a spirit guide in the form of a snake-bird, and recognizing Jojo as the grandson of the only man he ever called a father. Richie's unfinished story drives the novel's central mystery, as he pressures Jojo to coax the truth from Pop — that Pop killed Richie himself to spare him from a lynch mob. The deathbed crisis peaks when Richie tries to claim the dying Mam as his own mother before Given drives him away, and the aftermath forces Jojo and Leonie into a painful confrontation about love, loss, and letting go. The novel ends with Richie revealing to Jojo a tree full of trapped spirits — a testament to how deeply the violence of the past prevents the dead from ever finding rest.