Set on a 1970s Louisiana cane farm, the novel addresses racial discrimination in the post-civil rights era South.

The novel's title characters each admit to the murder of Beau, a Cajun farmer, in an effort to protect the guilty party, and view their stand as a development of their manhood.

To do so, she enlists the help of seventeen other old Black men by telling them come to Mathu's yard, each with a shotgun and one empty number 5 shell.

In making this change, Gaines de-emphasizes violence as a component of black manhood, and instead emphasizes their unified voice and community.

Additionally, Beau's brother plays on the LSU football team, where he and a Black player are nicknamed “salt and pepper”, and must work together to defeat Ole Miss.

[3] In 1987 Volker Schlöndorff, a famous German director, made a film, also titled A Gathering of Old Men (aka Murder on the Bayou), which adheres closely to the novel.

It stars Richard Widmark (as Sheriff Mapes), Louis Gossett Jr. (as Mathu), Holly Hunter (as Candy), Joe Seneca (as Clatoo), and Will Patton (as Lou Dimes).