In the novel, the first-person narrator lives near the Mohawk River in upstate New York during the 1950's, '60's, '70's, and '80's. He tells a series of related stories about what he threw into the river and why. The first story concerns an incident that occurs when the narrator is four years old, and the final story occurs in 1988 when he is 37. That final story is the most dramatic of all, takes up 50% of the novel, and is based on a real incident.