The novel opens with narrator Ora Lee Beckworth recounting a summer 25 years past, the summer of 1976. At this time, the town of Mayville is preparing for Independence Day celebrations. Ora sits on her front porch, drinking tea and watching women hang decorations up and down the street. An African American woman named Blanche works for Ora Lee as a housekeeper.

Ora Lee describes the various parts of town, including an overgrown wooded area outside the downtown that serves as an encampment for unhoused people. It is there that the “Pecan Man” lives; he’s earned the moniker by subsisting on pecans that fall from the trees throughout town.

Ora reveals that the Pecan Man’s real name is Eldred Mims and that he was convicted of murdering Skipper Kornegay, a 16-year-old boy. Ora plans to reveal the truth about Eldred—whom she calls Eddie—via her story.

In the spring of 1976, she hires Eddie to mow her lawn after seeing him dragging a mower around town. She overpays him and also sees that he receives lunch and iced tea while he works. One day, her neighbor Dovey Kincaid brings over a pie, insisting that she wants to be neighborly.