Twenty-year-old Angus endures Daugherty, North Carolina, a small town dominated by two businesses: pickles and roses. Outsiders are unwelcome. Even crows are chased away with small fertilizer bombs. A railroad track running along main street, divides people enswathed in peculiarities, buried secrets, gossip, racism, conspiracies, unrequited love, and a plethora of horrific wrongs. Angus attempts to balance madness by spinning on the playground merry-go-round. One summer day, a brother-sister duo appears and sets up a taco stand beside the courthouse. "Do you prefer spicy or not spicy?"