[1] Horace Cross is a gay black teenager from Tims Creek, a fictionalized rural town set in what is presumably North Carolina.

Armed with his grandfather's gun and almost naked, he walks around his hometown, experiencing flashbacks and revelations which tell the story of his life, his struggles with homosexuality, and the failures of his closest friends and family to save him from his fate.

The novel's present timeline revolves around Jimmy driving his great-aunt Ruth and his uncle Ezekiel (Zeke) to see one of their relatives, Asa Cross, in the hospital.

Afterwards Ruth has an argument with Zeke in the nearby diner, and despite being a church minister who is supposed to bring peace, Jimmy is unsuccessful in ending their fighting.

At the end of the trip, Zeke tries to teach Jimmy that he can't turn to the Bible to solve all of his problems, reflecting on how the Cross family needs more love instead of discipline from religion.

However, the spell backfires and it is interpreted that a demon begins to coerce and fully control Horace, guiding him through a full night of reflection on his failure to find love and acceptance through his queer identity.

Horace is guided to visit the local church, his teacher's house, his high school, the Crosstown Theater, and finally Tims Creek Elementary, where he confronts Jimmy at gunpoint.

The majority of Horace's nightlong hallucinations tell of the realization of his homosexuality and the subsequent negative backlash he faced in every aspect of his life.

[4] However, any time Horace attempts to reveal an example of his queer identity, a factor that conflicts with the rural Southern traditions of religion and marriage, his family lashes out at him.

As demonstrated in many of the hallucinations Horace undergoes, he desires to be accepted by his family through the lens of a queer identity are promptly shot down and denied.

Kenan is criticizing the intolerant and ensnaring tendencies that are brought through a misinterpretation of the Bible, one that overemphasizes any reference to the punishment of homosexuality over the more important ideas of love and family.