In addition, the two main sections of the book ("Jake: Fear in a Handful of Dust" and "Lud: A Heap of Broken Images") are named after lines in the poem.

[1] Five weeks after the events of the previous book, Roland, Susannah, and Eddie have moved east from the shore of the Western Sea, and into the woods of Out-World.

Jake abruptly leaves school and finds a key in a littered vacant lot where a single red rose has bloomed.

Jake manages to pass into Roland's world using the key to open a door in an abandoned haunted house on Dutch Hill in his place and time.

During this crossing over, Susannah has sex with an incubus, distracting it while Eddie continues to carve the key which will allow Jake safe passage to Mid-World.

Following the path of the Beam again, the ka-tet befriends an unusually intelligent billy-bumbler (which looks like a combination of badger, raccoon and dog with parrot-like speaking ability, long neck, curly tail, retractable claws and a high degree of animal intelligence) whom Jake names Oy, who joins them on their quest.

Before arriving there, the ka-tet hear the drum beat from the song "Velcro Fly" by ZZ Top playing from the city, although Eddie at first cannot remember where he has heard the rhythm before.

Roland and Oy must then track them through a man-made labyrinth in the city and into the sewers in order to rescue the boy from Gasher and his leader, the Tick-Tock Man.

[4] The film has been described as a combination of the first novel, The Gunslinger, and of The Waste Lands, while also incorporating significant story points from The Wind Through the Keyhole.