Donnie and Koda, ages nine and twelve respectively, travel with their grandmother Frances to her hometown in Virginia, to visit their aunt Pearl. There, Donnie grows curious about a thick line of brick dust that circles Pearl’s house. She tells him that it keeps the ants out, and sends the boys to Mr. Hammond’s house next door to ask for more, as she’s running low. One of Mr. Hammond’s employees, Harlowe, tells the boys it’s actually to keep the haints, or ghosts, out—and he gives them more, albeit abrasively. On their way off of the property, Koda climbs on an abandoned, rusty plow—and when Harlowe yells at him to get down, Koda slips and gashes his ankle open. Harlowe tries to usher them off the property without giving Koda a bandage, but caves in after a moment—and then Mr. Hammond appears, with a grape soda for each boy, joking that it will be “ten dollars for the both.” The boys return to Pearl’s house, where they quickly become bored. Pearl suggests they walk into town, which is several miles away. The boys set out just as the sky grows dark—and Koda insists that they cut through Mr. Hammond’s farm, though Donnie is less certain. As they enter the property, they pass multiple scarecrows—one in a Confederate cavalry uniform, from which Koda takes a button, and another in KKK robes—all with frighteningly human faces. The boys then reach two fields of tobacco, and begin to hear the sounds of harvesting. They run from a man, but wind up face-to-face with a harvesting gang. One of the men, Orpheus, urges the boys to flee, quickly, before the overseer can spot them—but tells the boys that the gang can be of no help to them, as they are held captive on the farm by the scarecrows, which hold the souls of the overseers. There is a curse on the farm, born of ten generations of slavery, suffering, and despair. Orpheus tells Koda and Donnie about the ghosts he believes have been there the longest: two boys who drowned in 1865. One of the ghostly boys walks right through Donnie. Orpheus further explains that their souls—the souls of people who had been sharecroppers on the land—are tied to the plants and seeds, just as they were tied to unpayable debts during their lives as sharecroppers. The scarecrows keep the sharecroppers trapped on the land, but also protect them from the circling crows that would otherwise bear their souls to hell. Orpheus adds that because Koda spilled blood on the land, he is at risk of getting trapped on the farm—more so because Koda and Donnie are in “debt” to Mr. Hammond, who gave them those two grape sodas earlier. The boys try to escape the farm, but are accosted by the scarecrow in the Confederate cavalry uniform—now on horseback. He drags Koda to the barn, reclaiming his button as he does and giving it to Harlowe. Donnie follows, and finds Koda tied to a table in the barn. A group of the sharecroppers confront the colonel and tell him to set Koda free, but the colonel refuses. Mr. Hammond appears, and then the sharecroppers and Hammond’s overseers clash. While they’re distracted, Donnie frees Koda. The colonel grabs Koda and holds a gun to his head. Donnie throws a rock at Hammond’s head, and his blood spills on the earth. Harlowe tosses the button, which contains part of the Confederate cavalry officer’s soul, into the fire, and the officer melts away. The battle picks up again, and Donnie begins to set the scarecrows on fire. Crows swoop down and begin carrying away the seeds; it turns out that they’re not trying to bear their souls to hell—that had been a lie of the overseers—but rather, bring them home.