A 23-year-old “redneck” (1) named Billy Ray Cobb is selling narcotics after finishing a three-year prison sentence. When the novel begins, he is sitting on the tailgate of a truck, “watching his friend Willard take his turn with the black girl” (1). Will is four years older, slow minded, and works part time for Cobb.

The girl “was ten, and small for her age” (2); her name is Tonya Hailey. Willard finishes raping her and then slaps her. The two men drink and laugh together. She looks into the woods and imagines she sees her father running towards her before she passes out. When she wakes, Cobb cuts her free and puts a noose around her neck. She had been walking home when they attacked her. Willard hit her in the back of the head with a beer can. The two men hear a car coming on the highway and throw the girl in the back of the truck to hide her. Willard suggests they move quickly and throw her off a bridge. Cobb finds a bridge over Foggy Creek and throws her into a ravine.

Tonya’s mother, Gwen Hailey, senses that something is wrong and sends her sons to look for Tonya.