The story begins to unfold as Luke and his grandfather Eli, also
known as Pappy, search for migrant workers to help them with the cotton
picking. They initially consider themselves lucky to hire the Spruills, a
family of "hill people," and a few Mexican migrant workers who annually come to the area looking for work.
Aside from working long hours under the hot sun in the fields, Luke's
life is fairly idyllic until he sees the overly aggressive and mentally
unstable Hank Spruill attack three boys from the notorious Sisco
family, one of whom is beaten so severely he dies from his wounds. Hank
arrogantly identifies Luke as a friendly witness who can support his
version of the event, and the fearful boy backs up his story, although
the adults in his life, including local sheriff Stick Powers, suspect he's too frightened to admit the truth.
When Luke sees Cowboy, one of the Mexicans, later murder Hank and
toss his body into the river, Cowboy threatens to kill Luke's mother if
Luke tells anyone what he saw. Cowboy and Tally, the teenage daughter of
the Spruills, then run off together and are not seen again. Luke also
learns that his admired Uncle Ricky, fighting in the Korean War, may have fathered a child with a daughter of the Latchers, their poverty-stricken sharecropping neighbors.
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