These interlocking stories begin with foundation tales of the migration of JJ, his wife Naomi, and their son Otis from their chaotic family beginnings in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to their settlement in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the 1920s. Stories in the second section treat Otis's coming of age amid the shifting fortunes of his family and friends. The third section considers events ranging from whimsical to tragic that occur in other peoples' lives in the same place and time. Gish recalls a world where although the workings of Providence are hard to fathom and their outcome is often hard to bear, we must accept them because our very lives are built upon them. From the Tulsa race riots of 1921 to Buck's last coon hunt, the reader is never left in a completely comfortable place, though one may see -- after the fact -- a rough justice at work.