On March 12, 1963, a Three Rivers resident named Ruth Fletcher buries her husband, Claude, whose funeral was delayed by the recent flood that devastated the town. As she sits in the damp funeral home, Ruth reflects on the limited attendance at Claude’s services compared to the large crowd gathered to mourn Myrna “Sunny” O’Day and her infant daughter, Grace, who also died in the flood. Ruth recalls Claude’s resentment of their neighbors, the Skloots, for allowing the Jones brothers—Black men—to live on their property. She openly endorses Claude’s racist beliefs, citing the Jones brothers’ deaths and Rufus’s wife’s later arrest as evidence that interactions between different races lead to disaster. She remembers warnings she received as a girl about Black men and insists that while she does not use racial slurs, she opposes racial “interbreeding.”

Ruth reflects on the flood, which killed seven people and damaged much of the town. She recalls seeing newspaper photographs of Sunny’s surviving children—Annie and Donald—and their cousin Kent Kelly, whom she judges harshly. Ruth also thinks back on her own life, including marrying Claude shortly after he was widowed and helping raise his daughter, Belinda Jean Fletcher. She remembers Belinda as a nervous child who compulsively pulled out her eyebrow hair and reflects on her own efforts to be a conscientious parent, guided by popular child-rearing advice.

At the funeral, Ruth observes Belinda’s lack of visible grief and worries about her emotional withdrawal. She recalls that their estrangement began years earlier over Josephus Jones. When the Jones brothers once brought the family tomatoes, Claude smashed them in anger. Tensions escalated during the town’s Tercentenary celebrations in 1959, when Belinda, performing as a trumpeter, forgot her instrument. Claude brought it to her and saw her speaking with Josephus Jones, which enraged him. Claude confronted them and forbade further contact, leading to a prolonged silence between father and daughter. When Ruth sought guidance from Reverend Frickee, Claude reacted with resentment, punishing Ruth with silence and withholding the carnations he traditionally bought her on her birthday.

Ruth later became aware that Belinda continued seeing Jones in secret. While working as a theater attendant, Ruth saw Belinda meeting Jones at a screening of West Side Story. That evening, Ruth confronted Belinda and instructed her to behave as though her parents were always watching.

At another Tercentenary event—an art exhibition—Ruth saw Jones’s winning painting depicting Adam and Eve, with Jones and Belinda clearly recognizable. She attempted to shield Claude from the painting, but he discovered it, erupted in public anger, and was removed without consequence. That night, Claude expelled Belinda from the home, though he allowed her to return three days later after she insisted that Jones had only sketched her and that no physical relationship occurred.

Weeks later, Jones was found dead in a well on the Skloot property. Ruth immediately suspected Claude, noting his agitation and sleeplessness. Belinda reacted with shock and illness, leading Ruth to fear pregnancy, though Belinda again denied any romantic involvement.

When suspicions arose around Jones’s death, Ruth hoped that Rufus—not Claude—would be blamed. Her fears were confirmed when she later found Claude cleaning a crowbar and burning his clothes, and he admitted to killing Jones. Ruth said nothing and prayed that her husband would not be discovered. In the years that follow, Ruth observed the household’s quiet decay. Claude’s health deteriorated due to heavy smoking, and Belinda became increasingly isolated.

As Ruth reminisces, she reflects on the strange symmetry that both Claude and Sunny O’Day died by suffocation, though in vastly different circumstances, and that both bodies passed through the same funeral home. While in the funeral home, Ruth prays for mercy: “[H]ave mercy on all of them, and on me, too, if it is Thy will” (372).