Chloe works at the American Gothic House in the nine-hundred-person town of Eldon, Iowa. She works in the visitor center, taking care of “bougie people driving from suburbs of Chicago,” organizing school visits, and dressing up as the couple in the famous Grant Wood painting entitled “American Gothic”—pitchfork, hat, and all. Her co-worker, Mark, is much kinder and more patient to the visitors of the house than Chloe is. As the house approaches closing time, Chloe heads to the backroom to check the mail. One envelop says in big, red letters, “NOTICE! This correspondence was mailed by an inmate confined in a facility operated by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Its contents are uncensored.” The writer is asking what the “official” interpretation of the painting is. The letter is signed, “Peace, Jon Allan Blue.” Chloe recognizes the name but can’t place it. She searches it on her phone and finds this letter was from “The Midwest Mangler,” a serial killer who mutilated his victims’ (always women) bodies beyond recognition. She does not respond to this first letter, but she keeps it in the draw of her nightstand. When Jon sends a second letter, she goes to the post office, rents a PO Box (a hefty sum for her meager paycheck) and writes back: there is no consensus about what the painting meant, but please write with further questions. She closes the envelope feeling like a little girl who stole a candy bar from a gas station. After work the next week, she and Mark go to the only remaining bar. While there, she thinks about all the people who have left town—gone to college and never come back. She hadn’t been able to afford college, but she’d always wanted to go to art school. Frank, Chloe’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, is at the bar. He comes very close to her face and says, “Your mama let you out to play?” Jon responds to her letter a week later. They start writing about their personal lives – what it’s like to be in prison, what he watches on TV, and what death row smells like. He writes, “I'm not sure why American Gothic interests me so much, he wrote. I guess there's something funny and sad and disturbing about it—all at the same time. I guess life is kind of like that, too.” Soon, their letter-writing turns to regular phone calls. She thinks about him more and even begins painting. Jon asks her to tell him something she has never told anyone else. She tells him about her father, who had abandoned her as a child and came back one day to take her out to dinner. She tells Jon that her father raped her and then left. Jon says he would very much like to kill her father. This is the first time Chloe fantasizes about Jon killing people for her. In a later call, she tells Jon about the fantasies she is having—Jon killing people she knows, Jon trying to kill her, Chloe fighting back. In another call, Jon says he has figured out the painting: “Really look at them. These are people seething with repressed violence. These are people fixated on death.” Chloe heads to the bar with Mark. Drunk, Mark kisses her and she bites his lip. She draws blood. Mark stumbles away. “What the fuck?” Chloe sees Frank by the pool table. She finishes her beer and stands to grab a pool cue.