This book includes photography by Walker Evans. The story tells of three families (real families whose names have been changed to preserve their anonymity), the Gudgers, the Ricketts, and the Woods. The stories take place in Alabama. They follow these families and spy on them, writing about what they do, but throughout the book, the author (a journalist) tells about his ethical dilemma about this.
The three families live in severe poverty. In the pictures, they are thin and unhealthy-looking, hard-worked and heat-plagued. The hot Alabama summer is brutal for the hungry poor, and descriptions of all three families' towns tell of how business drags along slowly. There are pictures of empty general stores, failing businesses, and there are entire towns with no commerce or economy, because everyone is too poor to afford anything.
Then there are three sections of considerations. They are "Money," "Shelter," and "Food," reflecting the severity of the Southern landscape in the height of poverty. In other words, these humans are dying, because their basic needs are not being met. These sections show how the poor go about finding money, shelter, and food on a daily basis, and it tells about what happens when people are not lucky or clever enough to figure something out.
The book ends with pictures of the families being introduced to the families. After they came out and admitted they had been spying, the interactions are awkward and uncomfortable, and the families are not pleased in their pictures.
