Summary

The novel is set in Georgia during the Reconstruction, which refers to the era immediately following the American Civil War. Chapter 1 opens with George Walker, a white man in his late middle age. He has lived in the town of Old Ox all his life. Recently, he has begun using his land to far peanuts for a living. George is obsessed with a mysterious creature that he has occasionally seen moving through the woods over the years. The creature sometimes moves on four legs, but sometimes it stands up and moves bipedally. One day, while trying to track and hunt the creature, he encounters two Black men. One of the men introduces himself as Prentiss, and he says that the other man is his brother Landry. Landry does not speak, and he appears to have a broken jaw. Prentiss says that he and Landry...