Thomas Elijah Raymond, a prisoner on Holman Prison’s death row in Alabama, asks for his final meal to be a cake from the restaurant Rachel’s Luncheonette. Food cannot be brought from the outside, so the owner, Rachel Walker, agrees to make it in the prison on the day of the execution. Rachel was a well-known cook, with published cookbooks, television show visits, advertisements, and merchandise. The warden, Lionel Peters, greets her in the prison kitchen and asks if she needs anything else. Rachel tells him she forgot to add vanilla syrup to the list and brought her own that her restaurant makes. The warden was understandable and let it pass. They discuss the prisoner, Thomas, and Rachel feels like Lionel represents how even the most decent people are fine with things like capital punishment. Rachel remembers Raymond visiting her restaurant when he was around six years old, with his grandparents. He ordered the molasses cake that he ate with great pleasure. As the family left, Raymond stopped breathing from an allergic reaction, and Rachel gave him allergy syrup. Rachel learned that Raymond's grandparents were his new guardians and didn’t know about his condition. During Raymond’s trial, Rachel learned that his grandparents had died, and Raymond worked as a day laborer and killed the man who refused to pay him. His sentence by the state of Alabama gave him no clemency. Rachel knew that Raymond’s cake request was to kill him from the molasses allergy. However, the amount in the cake would not be enough to kill him as a grown man. So, in her bottle of vanilla syrup, Rachel secretly snuck in cassava from her garden, which carries poison in its skin and leaves. She knows Thomas secretly asked her to help him die and make his peace in private. Rachel starts preparing the final meal.