The novel begins with the characters learning of the rumored rape of a young white heiress by a black superstar athlete, Fareek "The Cannon" Fanon. Though the incident itself is unimportant to the lives of the characters, the potential for the rumor to incite race riots in metropolitan Atlanta has a profound effect on all of their lives. Local politics and business interests become involved, including the president of the bank to which Croker is indebted, Roger Too White's former fraternity brother (now mayor of Atlanta), and the entirety of 'respectable' Atlanta society.