Prologue, Down on the Farm (1962), Preface, Jones' Thomas Berryman (1974), and Part 1, The First Trip North Summary

Mayor Jimmie Lee Horn of Nashville has been killed. His apparent killer, Bert Poole, is shot by a man dressed as a state trooper who later turns out to be a hired killer. The entire episode is captured on news footage that is aired over and over again, leaving no doubt in anyone's minds who the killer is.

In the prologue, two young men in Texas get a ride with a local man, then kill him and steal his car to make their way to New York. In the preface, Ochs Jones is introduced. Ochs Jones is a reporter with a local Nashville newspaper who has investigated and is writing a book about the death...