Summary

Chapter 1 – The little town of Mayville, Florida, prepares for the July Fourth Bicentennial in 1976. Fifty-seven year-old widow and mother Ora Lee Beckworth has a black maid named Blanche. Blanche lives in a section of Mayville known by all as “Colored Town”. Blanche was born light-skinned enough to cause her father to abandon his wife, declaring her a cheater. Blanche’s mother chose Blanche’s name from a book of baby names, deciding it was a fitting and pretty name. Blanche herself ultimately came to raise five children, and two grandchildren after one of her daughters ran off with a drug dealer. In retrospect, Ora believes fate bound her and Blanche together through the Pecan Man.

Pecan trees line Main Street in Mayville. Many of the residents are unhappy about the opening of Lifeways, a company that provides counseling and services to addicts, substances abusers...