Lou Ann doesn’t get along with her family, but doesn’t want them to leave either. Meanwhile, Lou Ann’s baby, Dwayne Ray, is now one month old, and Lou Ann’s grandmother and mother are getting ready to leave after coming to Arizona to help Lou Ann with the birth. Taylor decides to stay in Tucson, even though she is unfamiliar with everything about Tucson culture.

In Tucson, her tires give out and Taylor pulls into a shop called “Jesus Is Lord Used Tires.” The owner, a woman named Mattie, welcomes Taylor to Tucson and gives her advice about how to raise Turtle. After the New Year, Taylor continues west and decides to settle in Arizona because she falls in love with the landscape. Turtle was severely abused by her biological family, and never speaks or smiles. She continues to take care of the child, a girl, whom Taylor has named Turtle because of the child’s tight grip that reminds her of a mud turtle’s jaw. Meanwhile, Taylor has been living at the Broken Arrow motel, cleaning rooms to pay for her room and board. This accident, coupled with Lou Ann’s pregnancy, puts a strain on their relationship until Angel leaves Lou Ann on Halloween. Lou Ann’s husband, Angel, used to work for the rodeo but lost his leg in an injury.

The novel then introduces Lou Ann Ruiz, a woman from Kentucky currently living in Tucson, Arizona. Taylor thinks that it’s fitting that she’s stuck on Cherokee land, given that her great-grandfather was Cherokee. Not long after, Taylor’s car breaks down and Taylor is stuck in Oklahoma. The woman gives Taylor a baby, who she says is in danger. Two days later, Taylor runs into an old woman at a bar near Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma. As soon as she has the funds, Marietta drives her old car west, renaming herself Taylor after the first town she reaches when she has to stop for gas. Marietta becomes even more determined to leave Pittman and saves up money for an old car.

One day, Newt Hardbine’s wife comes in with a bullet wound because Newt’s father shot both her and Newt (who died). Marietta finishes high school and gets a job at the Pittman County Hospital. The narrator then shares her name: Marietta. A childhood memory of Newt Hardbine’s father getting thrown in the air by an exploding tire scars the narrator, and she vows to leave her hometown as soon as possible. The novel’s narrator opens by describing her hometown in Pittman County, Kentucky, a place where poverty, teenage pregnancy, and a lack of education determine the life paths of all who live there.

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