Summary

In the Prologue, Newman gives the facts of the attack on Shepard and his resulting death. On October 6, 1998, Shepard was kidnapped from the Fireside Lounge, a bar in Laramie, Wyoming. McKinney and Henderson lured Shepard from the bar into their truck by pretending to be gay. They took him to the outskirts of the city where they robbed him, beat him, tied him to a fence, and left him to die. Shepard was found the next morning by Kriefels as he rode his mountain bike. Shepard died of his injuries five days later.

In “The Fence (before),” is narrated by the fence to which Shepard was tied. In it, the fence wonders what its purpose is and if it will be remembered.

In “Outnumbered,” the narrator quotes statistics of the number of people in the world, a number...