Summary
On the drive home from Salina, a juvenile detention center, newly released Emmett Watson thinks he has to spend the rest of his life repaying the debt he has incurred after being convicted of manslaughter, despite the killing being accidental. The warden, who is driving him to his recently deceased father’s farmhouse in Morgen, Nebraska, gives Emmett an optimistic talk about life. Upon arriving at the farm, Mr. Ransom, the neighboring farmer, is waiting with Emmett’s younger brother, Billy.
Inside, Emmett meets Mr. Obermeyer, a banker who is there to collect on the late Charles Watson’s many unpaid debts. Emmett willingly signs away the house, but refuses to let him claim the car, as he paid for it with his own money. Left alone in an unfamiliarly tidy house, Emmett reminisces on his childhood on the farm—and his father’s increasingly bad fortune and judgment. Mr. Ransom welcomes Emmett back, but also warns him of the grudge that the Snyders, the family of the boy Emmett accidentally killed, holds against Emmett. He advises Emmett to leave town, and Emmett assures him he will.
Billy suggests California, following a trail of postcards that their absent mother sent them eight years ago when she left their family. Emmett finds a letter from their father in the farm with a note apologizing for his misfortune and leaving behind 3,000 dollars as a final offering. They are interrupted by the sudden presence of Duchess and Woolly, two former inmates at Salina. The two explain that they stowed away in the warden’s car, and eagerly share their plan with the brothers: with Emmett’s car, they can drive up to New York, where Woolly has a sizeable trust fund that should have been waiting for him if his brother-in-law hadn’t had him declared “unfit.”
Emmett refuses to be a part of their plan, but offers to drive them back to Omaha so they can make their way to Salina. Duchess snoops around the house, looking for alcohol and finding the unpaid bills left by Emmett’s father. Duchess tells Billy a bedtime story that adapts Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Duchess thinks about the last time he saw his father, which was after his last performance in Omaha. He was abandoned at a home for wayward boys, and watched as his father drove off with a young blonde.
The next morning, Emmett wakes to find that Sally, their neighbor’s daughter, has come over to make them breakfast. While Billy is distracted by Duchess’s tales of sneaking out of Salina at night, Emmett and Sally have a brief argument about expectations, as Sally was a former romantic interest of Emmett’s. Emmett drives by the fairgrounds, where he ended up accidentally killing Jimmy Snyder over a year ago. He ruminates on the incident, and how Jimmy provoked him by insulting Emmett’s father, then how a single punch led to Jimmy’s death.
Outside the library, Emmett is confronted by Jake Snyder, Jimmy’s brother. He refuses to fight back, allowing himself to be hit a few times before the sheriff arrives to break it up. Afterwards, the sheriff drives him back, and on the drive advises Emmett on reintegrating into society. Duchess, who has hitchhiked his way into town and witnessed Emmett’s altercation with Jake Snyder, follows one of Jake’s friends who goaded Jake into hitting Emmett. He follows the friend down an alleyway, and when the friend refuses to apologize for instigating the fight, Duchess hits him in the head hard with a plank of wood.
Back at the Watsons’ home, Woolly reflects on his life as he listens to Billy read from Professor Abernathe’s book. He thinks about the monotony of everyday life in most places: Salina, his boarding school, and the future that he has to look forward to via his brother-in-law Dennis. Woolly turns to Billy and tells himself it would be magnificent to have a “one-of-a-kind kind of day.” Once again the narrative shifts from a limited third-person point of view to a close first-person with Sally. Sally, who has been looking after her father her entire life, and also looked after Billy in Emmett's absence, ponders a woman’s role in a household, and the silent, unappreciated labor that goes into making it function. Later that night, Duchess returns to the farmhouse and waits for the Watson brothers to fall asleep. He goes to rouse Woolly and searches for Emmett’s car keys when a vehicle drives up and leaves a package on the porch. Duchess opens it.
Analysis
The novel is structured so that the first chapter begins at 10 and progresses backward to Chapter 1. The effect is mirrored by the story’s intensifying plot, as multiple threads merge together across both time and distance. As Emmett and Duchess’s motivations clash and the police investigation draws nearer, the countdown of the chapters sets up for a dramatic finale. The tight compression of the lengthy plot into ten short days also adds to the effect of a fast-paced, action-filled story.
The theme of repentance is immediately introduced from the onset: Emmett believes he has a life debt to repay for accidentally killing Jimmy Snyder, a boy in town who insulted Emmett’s mother. Some of Emmett’s core values—honor and justice—shine through in his perspective; he understands the decisions his father made on his failed farm, but he does not excuse them. The car Emmett fights for, providing proof of his rightful ownership to the banker, as it is rightfully his. Emmett prides himself on his unusual maturity and responsibility, and his plan to move out west and find a career in carpentry and investments reflects these values.
He is unsure, however, what to think of Billy’s request that they follow their mother’s trail of postcards to California. Having been abandoned by their mother when he was eight years old, Emmett's relationship with her is avoidant and marked by hurt. He is wary of Billy's optimistic assurance that they will find her in San Francisco, but he is also loathe to shatter his brother's hopes. It is ultimately a practical consideration that allows him to agree, as their economic prospects look better there. Emmett’s unusually mature disposition, aided by his time at Salina, will be a guiding force for him throughout the novel. But Emmett is still a teenage boy, and accordingly still vulnerable to the short-sightedness and rashness of youth. The story will remedy this gap later with the introduction of Ulysses, an older, more capable adult figure.
The envelope from their late father puts the rest of Emmett’s doubts at ease, as he feels free to pursue his own fate now. This theme of seeking to find one’s own destiny is a recurring one, as it plays out in other characters such as Duchess, Ulysses, and Woolly as well. Released from the guilt of abandoning their father’s failed ventures, Emmett and Billy are narratively and emotionally in the perfect position to begin their own journey and make a fresh start.
This lesson is put into practice a bit differently, however, by Duchess. After witnessing the altercation between Emmett and Jake where Emmett allowed himself to be hit as fair recompense for Jimmy’s death, Duchess puts his understanding of settling debts into practice by seriously injuring one of Jake’s friends. The shift in narrative perspective from a limited third to a close first for Duchess’s chapters creates a contrasting effect: Duchess’s charismatic and entertaining narration both eludes and charms the reader. While the nearness of the first-person encourages the reader to sympathize with Duchess, as it is harder to write him off as a one-dimensional villain, his motivations remain ambiguous. Duchess’s chapters are full of personal asides and digressions, as he elaborates on the various figures he has encountered in his past. They are sparse, however, on details about himself. Sally's first-person perspective creates an interesting contrast to Duchess's chapters, as her chapters are full of sharp and pointed commentary on herself and the world around her. She has a straightforwardness that Duchess does not.
While unexpected and unwelcome by Emmett, Duchess and Woolly are not malicious in intent. Duchess truly believes in the authenticity of the money that Woolly claims exists, while Emmett remains skeptical. It is, again, ultimately Billy who pushes Emmett into agreeing to help Duchess and Woolly at all; Emmett's younger brother is his weakness. This is a weakness that Duchess immediately picks up on and exploits: he pressures Emmett into detouring at his old orphanage thanks to Billy's insistence that they travel via the Lincoln Highway. That the two escaped inmates seem suspicious, however, cannot be denied. Emmett accordingly remains on guard as the four boys set out on their journey.
