Chapter 1:
• Grant recalls the event leading up to the trial
• Jefferson is accused of robbing Alcee Gopre (a store owner) with two other young black men (Brother and Bear)
• Brother and Bear demanded Alcee, the store owner to hand over some alcohol for free
• An argument broke out which soon led to a shootout killing all three of them and leaving Jefferson on his own
• Being confused and scarred, Jefferson took some alcohol to calm his nerves and took some money as well, even though he knew it was wrong to steal
• The prosecution claimed that Jefferson stuffed the money into his pockets and celebrated the robbery by drinking some alcohol
• The white jury members came to a decision and claimed that Jefferson was guilty
• The judge sentenced Jefferson to death by electrocution

Chapter 2:

• When Grant comes home from school, he tries to avoid his aunt, Tante Lou and Jefferson’s godmother, Miss Emma
• Miss Emma believes that Jefferson shouldn’t die as a hog and that he should die as a man
• Miss Emma wants Grant to go visit Jefferson and try to change him into a man before he is executed
• Grant, Miss Emma and Tante Lou all go and visit Mr. Henry Pichot because his brother-in-law is the sheriff and might allow Grant to go visit Jefferson

Chapter 3:

• Miss Emma, Grant and Tante Lou arrive at Mr. Pichots house
• Miss Emma was the cook at the Pichots house, like her mother and grandmother before her, Grant used to run errands and Tante Lou washed and ironed all there clothes
• Miss Emma ask Mr. Pichot to convince his brother-in-law to allow Grant go visit Jefferson
• Mr. Pichot doesn't like the idea of allowing Grant go visit, but Miss Emma reminds Mr. Pichot of all the years she has spent taking care of the family
• After having some time to think, Mr. Pichot agrees to talk to his brother-in-law

Chapter 4:

• Grants goes to Bayonne after dropping Miss Emma and Tante Lou off
• Grants stops at the Rainbow Club where he is greeted Thelma Claiborne and her husband Joe Claiborne
• Grants meets his lighter skinned girlfriend Vivian
• Grant offers Vivian and her children a chance to run away from Bayonne
• Vivian refuses and asked why he came back after he had left her before with his parents to California
• Grants tells Vivian about Jefferson and she believes that he can help turn Jefferson into a man

Chapter 5:

• Grant comes home and goes back to school to teach black children from primer to sixth grade
• Grant only teaches for five and a half months out of the year because for the rest of the year, the students work out in the field
• Grant punishes his students for the slightest mistakes because he is a bad mood
• Grant goes out into the yard and recalls everything he knows about the houses near the school
• When he goes back into the church, Grant finds a young boy playing with a bug and smack him at the back of his neck with his ruler
• Grants tells the whole class about the task Miss Emma has told him to do
• He explains that he must try to make Jefferson become a man, which is what he’s also trying to do with them

Chapter 6:

• Grant arrives at Mr. Pichots house in order to talk to his borther-in-law, sheriff Sam Guildry
• While waiting, Grant hears Sam Guildry and his wife Edna enter through the front door
• Edna enters the kitchen and asks Grant many questions without giving him a chance to answer any of it
• Grant finds out from Inez that Louis Rougan is betting that Grant wont be able to make Jefferson a man before he is executed
• After waiting for two and a half hours, Sam Guildry, Henry Pichot, Louis Rougan and a fat man walk into the kitchen to see Grant
• After Sam asks Grant many questions regarding to what he wants to do with Jefferson, he allows Grants to go visit Jefferson even though he believes that Grant will fail
• Sam told Grant that he will not be allowed to visit Jefferson again if he “aggravates” him

Chapter 7:

• Grant