[1] The book contains 7 short stories or novellas:[2] "Blood Drive"; "Fetching Raymond"; "Fish Files"; "Casino"; "Michael's Room"; "Quiet Haven"; and "Funny Boy".

Roger, an alcoholic, insists they stop at a gas station so he can purchase beer; he tells several stories about Memphis strip clubs, stimulating Aggie and Calvin's curiosity.

A Memphis Police Department vice squad springs a raid on the strip club, and Aggie and Calvin are injured in the resulting riot.

The middle-aged brothers Butch and Leon - respectively a habitual car thief and a more or less reformed criminal - retrieve their mother Inez.

They set out in a borrowed van for the notorious Parchman prison, where their younger brother Raymond is on death row for murdering a Deputy.

The two brothers watch Raymond's last moments, when he manages dignified final words and asks the forgiveness of his victim's family.

Afterward, Butch stays with their mother and Leon returns to work, as he can't afford to miss a day.

One day he gets a call out of the blue from a New York attorney at a prestigious firm, claiming to have been retained by the European purchaser of a chainsaw manufacturer.

The Europeans, the New York attorney claims, are terrified of the American system of tort law and want to settle any old cases from the chainsaw company.

He offers $25,000 to the two loggers he finds of the original four - who are happy to get anything at all and don't realize that their lawyer has stolen most of the money due to them - and makes no real effort to trace the other two.

He intends to manipulate the local history of Native Americans and its associated law of tribal affairs, claiming descent of the Yazoo tribe through his great-grandfather.

In return, the land is largely developed as a casino under the protection of federal law, rendering it untouchable by outraged local and state authorities.

Unable to find her, he begins gambling at the newly opened Yazoo casino and discovers that he has considerable talent at blackjack.

Wade had represented the doctor who apparently caused Michael's extensive birth defects, due to incompetence and potential intoxication.

During the course of the trial, Wade insisted that the doctor was a great and caring man, dismissing Michael and mocking the evidence of malpractice.

Wade is forced to listen to pages of the trial transcript read to him by Mr. Cranwell and begins to feel remorse for his actions and those of his guilty clients.

As an orderly he begins gathering rumors and searching for evidence of malfeasance and medical malpractice, befriending both employees and residents to earn their trust and learn their gossip.

Eventually, the man begins taking this resident outside the nursing home for activities, including visiting Civil War battlefields.

It is revealed that he will receive a percentage of the impending settlement from the company that owns the chain of nursing homes, presumably as a "finder's fee" for discovering a ripe legal case.

In the mid-1980s, AIDS is virtually unknown in Ford County, and there is a strong prejudice and ignorant belief that it highly contagious.

The young man and the old lady live together and become close friends even as the entire town - whites and blacks alike - comes to resent them both out of fear, ignorance, and bigotry.