In 1934, Ella Barron runs a boarding house in Gilead, Texas, where she lives with her mentally disabled ten-year-old son Solly. She takes on David Rainwater, a man with cancer who only has a few months to live. Mr. Rainwater befriends Solly, tries to teach him as much as possible, and falls in love with Ella. Meanwhile, the government has created a program
to buy cattle from people who can't afford to feed their herds and slaughter the healthier ones for meat. Conrad Ellis, one of the richest and cruelest men in town, is hired by the government to help carry out the program, exacerbating racial and class tensions.
Rainwater contains examples of:
- Attempted Rape: Conrad corners Ella and Solly next to an outhouse, knocks Solly to the ground, pins Ella against the outhouse with his hand over her mouth, and tries to force himself on her. Ella manages to fight him off with a Groin Attack. Then Solly smashes his head in with a rock.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Solly pulls a pan of hot starch onto himself and burns his arm and shoulder. Pearl Dunne, one of the boarders, says, "It's a good thing it wasn't-" Her sister Violet elbows her in the ribs before she can mention the pot of stewing greens, which could have burned him a lot worse.
- Broken-Window Warning: Conrad throws a bottle through the window of the black church and screams racial slurs as he drives away.
- Dead Guy Junior: Ella and Mr. Rainwater conceive a child during their brief romance. Ella names him David Rainwater Barron.
- Dead Man Writing: A few hours before Mr. Rainwater's death, he learns that Ella is pregnant with his child. He writes her a letter. The letter's contents are too personal for her to share with anyone else, but she carries the letter around with her for the rest of her life.
- Dirty Cop: Sheriff Anderson won't arrest Conrad no matter how many laws he breaks because Conrad's father, who owns a meatpacking plant, bankrolled Anderson's election. Conrad also becomes one after he's made deputy.
- Disappeared Dad: When Solly was about four, Ella came home to find that her husband had packed his things and left. She never heard from him again.
- Dying Alone: Averting this is the reason Mr. Rainwater chose to spend his final months in a boarding house instead of in his own home.
- Hate Sink: Conrad is a bigoted bully whose tactics include both physical violence and destruction of property, as well as an attempted rapist, a murderer, and a Karma Houdini. Until Solly kills him.
- Idiot Savant: Ella doesn't think Solly can count, until he lines up the dominoes by number of dots. Dr. Kincaid diagnoses him as an idiot savant, as autism isn't a diagnosis yet. As an adult, Solly turns out to be a mathematical genius who builds complicated models for buildings and bridges, but his disabilities prevent him from making a career out of it.
- The Last Dance: Cattle that the government deems too thin to be butchered are shot and left in a mass grave. People from the shantytown come to the mass graves to try to collect as much meat as possible, but Conrad sees it as his job to prevent them from doing so, which he does by threatening to shoot them and having his goons beat them up. Some locals form a group to fight back against Conrad's men and protect the starving people as they take the meat. Mr. Rainwater joins the group, despite Ella's warnings that it could put his life in danger, because he wants to do something good before he dies.
- Last-Name Basis: Ella continues to call Mr. Rainwater by his last name even after they have sex.
- Never Suicide: Conrad Ellis lynches Brother Calvin and leaves him hanging from a rafter in his church. The sheriff rules the death a suicide.
- No Medication for Me: Dr. Kincaid pressures Ella to medicate or institutionalize Solly, but she refuses because she thinks he's capable of learning.
- Not Good with Rejection: Conrad pursued Ella when they were in high school. At her mother's urging, Ella went on a few dates with him, but refused to marry him because he made her uncomfortable. Over a decade later, Conrad still hasn't lost interest. He sexually harasses Ella and eventually tries to rape her.
- Not His Blood: One night Conrad comes back to the boarding house covered in blood. He tells Ella that it's not his blood, but the cattle's.
- Outliving One's Offspring: When Ella was three, her parents had twin boys who both died in infancy. After that, they both succumbed to depression and alcoholism. They were both dead by the time Ella was nineteen, leaving her in charge of the household.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Conrad is very vocal about his hatred for both black people and poor whites.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Conrad was a bully and a Spoiled Brat whose parents never told him no, and whose teachers wouldn't discipline him because his parents were rich. As an adult, he's still a violent bully whose father's money protects him from any consequences.
- The Speechless: Solly has never been able to speak. At the end of the book, he says his first words, "Good job, Solly," after killing Conrad.
- Struggling Single Mother: Ella runs a boarding house while raising a mentally disabled son by herself during The Great Depression.
- Taking the Heat: Mr. Rainwater dips his fingers in Conrad's blood to make it look like he killed him, then makes a false confession to the sheriff. He dies of cancer before he can be executed.
- Tears of Joy: Ella, Mr. Rainwater, and Solly are relaxing by a creek while Mr. Rainwater reads A Farewell to Arms out loud. Ella suddenly starts to cry. Mr. Rainwater points out that they haven't gotten to the sad part of the book, but Ella says, "I'm not crying over the story, or because I'm sad. I don't remember a single moment of my life when I've been this happy or content. And it's because of you."
