While paying a visit to Terrell Cheatham's house to investigate his bail jump, the narrator and Terrell's grandmother, Frances, witness Terrell get fatally shot outside the home. The shooter is an older white man.

According to Frances, Terrell's grandma, Terrell was a sweet and upstanding kid, with an almost flawless record. Terrell's grandfather died of cancer. Unsettled by Terrell's murder, the narrator, a private investigator, tracks down the homicide detective assigned to his case. He reveals that Terrell had associations with two gang members, and was suspected to have near-fatally attacked a Mid-South Transport truck driver with a Molotov cocktail.

Southwest Tennessee operates under the thumb of the Montesi mob, an Italian mafia. The narrator pays a visit to the truck driver, Don Ellis, who is disfigured with burn scars. The truck driver mentions that he was connected to his Mid-South Transport job by a Montesi member. He also lets slip that (contrary to the prevailing story,) he wasn't alone in the truck.

The narrator visits the two gang members, Demond and Bop-Bop, who reveal that Terrell was on the brink of publicizing data he'd collected about Montesi's illegal burial of carcinogenic materials near poor, Black communities. This tragedy infuriated Terrell, leading him to throw a Molotov cocktail at a driver. They challenge the narrator to visit the hospital, claiming that it's full of children from their community suffering from cancer. Later on, Don Ellis confirms that the Montesis have been using Mid-South Transport to execute burials for years.

The narrator is brutally beat up by a mob member; undeterred, he requests to meet with Little Vinnie, the head of the mob. Vinnie is deep in grief over the loss of his son to leukemia, and recently donated millions to fund a children's hospital wing. The narrator requests that Vinnie accompany him to the hospital. Vinnie initially refuses, but agrees after connecting with the narrator over his stillborn child. After visiting the pediatric wing, Vinnie is overcome by emotion as he realizes that the Montesis gave many children cancer. He promises to halt the dumping, and kills everyone in connection with the crime, so that they don't "snitch." 

Two weeks later, the narrator stares at a river, contemplating the toxic and painful nature of the memories that we mentally bury.