In Louisiana, there was a name given to mixed-race people with a certain tint to their skin: redbone. Baptiste Grabbo is one such man. His wife just gave birth to a son, and he goes to celebrate and pray to his patron saint who watches over him. But, on his way home from praying, he accidentally strikes a bat that was flying about his head. Afraid that he has upset the Devil who would bring pain to his family, Baptiste turns around and goes straight back home. His wife and child are both fine, and the midwife chastises him for continuously coming home out of anxiety about if he had accidentally caused some suffering. Feeling cowed, Baptiste goes back out to town. He tells his friend Toni about the birth of his son, as he knows that if someone else imparted the news to the town it would lend it more weight. After getting sufficiently drunk, Baptiste walks about the town center and receives congratulations. He haggles with merchants, and his cousin Zuboff calls him over and humble-brags about how much work he has had as a tombstone carver after many rich locals have died. Baptiste sees, in the back of his shop, two huge tombstones with angels on them, and commissions them for his wife in commemoration of his son's birth. On the way home that night, he is too tired and drunk to notice the bats that swoop near his head, or the man who slips out of his house as his horse rides up. Over the following weeks, Baptiste spends most of his time in Zuboff's shop, and watches him engrave the message to his wife on the tombstones he has bought. Zuboff laughs at Baptiste for wanting them set up in his living room. Baptiste would also complain about how his wife wanted lace and a baby buggy for his son; extravagances to Baptiste who thought they were for the rich neighbors and not for down-to-earth men like himself. Baptiste's home is in a state of constant celebration, and the Black people who work the land do as much work as the family members who come for the continuous celebrations. Not even his overseer Olaf cared to keep anything moving. After three weeks, the tombstones are completed and shipped to the Grabbo family burial site outside of town. Baptiste prepares the site all day, ready to show his wife for their eventual burials, and goes home a little earlier and more sober than usual to the consternation of the midwife who watches his son. His wife is gone, "out on a walk," the midwife tells him. Baptiste steps outside to find his wife, and sees her run down the path towards the burial grounds. He follows, but she doesn't stop, and runs instead into Olaf's arms, where he has waited for her. Baptiste spends the next day on his plans and ignores his child. He bemoans the fact that he bought tombstones that would so suddenly come to use; his plan is to kill Olaf and forgive his wife for giving in to her flighty, womanly temptations. Years later, when Baptiste's wife dies, the people who dig her grave find a skeleton already in it. As Baptiste died years before, no one knows who it could be.