Ghosts and supernatural sightings are common in the Deep South. With the emergence of the moon on the first night of its final quarter, an old oak tree bears the hanging corpse of Sam. Sam, a formerly enslaved man who once worked for Percy Legare, was utterly devoted to his enslaver. He worked alongside his sister, Venus, who was also enslaved by the Legares. Though the Civil War had been over for twenty years and brought the emancipation of enslaved people, Sam and Venus refused to find work elsewhere. They have total commitment to Percy Legare, especially Sam, who, even in the afterlife, is committed to please Percy. Sam and Venus greatly disapproved of Percy’s daughter-in-law, Joanna, who performs seances and other psychic acts at his house. Joanna uses the house, known as Indigo Landing, to contact otherworldly spirits and energies, and supposedly she has control over the mystic, Bhundi Ras. She stirs trouble one day when she fires Sam, much to Percy’s dismay. Percy steals away to the dilapidated smokehouse, a decrepit shack which is about to fall over. He tries to find his hidden liquor, but, moments after he steps into the rotted building, a plank hits him and he dies. He awakens to a strange scene, and witnesses his cousin James in front of him, a man who lives fifty miles away. He sees his cousin and other members of his family and desperately calls out to them, but they pay no attention to him. Disturbed by this peculiarity, Percy returns home to see a huge crowd of people who also ignore him. He runs to his bed, only to find more people. They stand and look over a body on his mattress. His body! Shaken, Percy wanders about and meets other ghosts, and befriends a man who starved to death. After they speak for some time, Percy eventually returns home. There, he encounters Sam, who sits on the rooftop. Percy is overcome with happiness, relief, and gratitude. The two of them are sit and watch over Venus and Joanna. Sam tells Percy that after Joanna fired him, he ventured outside of Indigo Landing and was targeted by a mob of white people, and they lynched and killed him. Because Sam was indoctrinated by white supremacist ideology, he sadly strings himself up on the tree where he was hanged as a kind of repentance. Percy does not explain how he died, as he cannot even accept his death. When Bhundi Ras — the magical mystic — visits him on behalf of his daughter-in-law, Percy refuses to go with him. Bhundi Ras reveals to them both how Percy truly died. It was not merely because of the crumbling smokehouse, but because, just as Percy entered into the smokehouse, so did Sam. Sam, spooked by what appeared to be the presence of a ghost, clobbered the other entity in there with him and ran off. He did not know thar it was his beloved Percy. Percy forgives Sam, as they seem to need each other. Sam plans to enter heaven by wading into a river with other ghosts, but Percy refuses. Sam eventually returns to Percy, and forsakes his chance of eternal freedom. Sam's body remains in the Hanging Tree.