John Henry, a Black man living in a small town outside of Cincinnati in the 1970s, is looking down the barrel of a gun. The man who is holding the shotgun is ready to kill him, and John Henry's life flashes before his eyes as the man's wife begs him not to kill John Henry. John Henry reflects on how he had only been home for a bit from Vietnam when he went to the barber shop. At that time, everyone had been so excited to see him and talk to him. In addition to getting his haircut, he told the barbers and other patrons what it was like to be a Black soldier in Vietnam. In one such story, a white soldier told John Henry a road was opened, only for John Henry to later find out that it had still been occupied by VietCong. The only reason John Henry was not killed, according to the laughing barber, was because the Vietnamese soldiers were so shocked to see such a fool driving by.

John Henry had not wanted to settle down or give up on life when he got back. And he did not want to work at the mill to make his living, slowly waiting for death from the fumes like everyone else in the town. John Henry did end up working at the mill, however, selling joints of weed as a bit of a side hustle. One day, one of the higher ups at the mill called in John Henry because he knew about the joint rolling. He told John Henry that he had an opportunity for him selling White Horse. John Henry hesitated at first since it was a much harder drug than he was used to selling but ultimately decided to do it for the money.

John Henry began doing well in the drug business as he was the main point of contact in the town. A high school basketball star named Bobbie Powers got hooked on White Horse, improving his game high on the drug, after his friend Chico dared him to try it. One day, when John Henry and a business partner named Tucker were building connections in New York, Bobbie asked Tucker for a contact to supply him White Horse while John Henry and Tucker were out of town. Tucker reluctantly gave him a name, and Bobbie Powers ended up dead, either from overdose or some type of poison in the drug, after he fell out of a car at a rest stop.

When John Henry returns home, Bobbie Powers's father finds him and puts a gun to his head for killing his son. John Henry does not end up dead because of the mercy of Mr. Powers's brother, who gets the gun out of Mr. Powers's hands. After the incident, John Henry packs a bag and leaves town, thinking moving to a bigger city will help him get better clientele anyway.