The story centers on nine-year-old Jess Hall and his older brother Christopher (nicknamed "Stump"), who is mute and autistic. The boys' mother, Julie, is a devoted member of a local fundamentalist church led by the charismatic and menacing Pastor Carson Chambliss, whose services include extreme rituals like snake handling.Tragedy strikes when Stump is smothered to death during a "healing service" intended to cure his muteness—an event witnessed by Jess. The novel follows the fallout of this death as the community's secrets are unraveled
