Plot summary
Newspaper reporter Tom Krome is sent to the small Florida town of Grange to interview JoLayne Lucks, an African-American veterinary assistant who holds one of two winning tickets to the state lottery. She agrees to an interview, but politely declines to have a news story written about her. The other winning lottery ticket is held by Bode Gazzer and his best friend "Chub," two unemployed white supremacists. Bode is the founder and self-proclaimed "leader" of a fledgling militia, which consists solely of himself and Chub. Unwilling to accept only half of the $28 million jackpot, Bode insists that they track down the owner of the other winning ticket. Discovering that this other winner is black seems to vindicate Bode's conspiracy theory that the government is keeping "Christian white men" from winning the lottery, and makes his and Chub's next decision easy.
After Bode and Chub savagely beat JoLayne and steal her ticket, she appears in Tom's hotel room pleading for help. Tom urges her to contact the police, but she says she can't: she plans to use the lottery proceeds to buy Simmons Wood, a pristine forest plot near her home, to prevent it being redeveloped; she can't afford to wait for the police, since a labor union in Chicago has already made an offer for the property. Before leaving Grange, Bode and Chub approach "Shiner," the clerk at the convenience store where JoLayne bought her winning ticket, and convince him to hand over the store's security video showing the purchase by playing on his small-town boredom and offering him a place within the new "brotherhood."
Tom's editor, Sinclair, who believes in innocuous "feel-good" stories, refuses to allow any kind of investigation into the alleged lottery theft. Tom quits in disgust and helps JoLayne track down the robbers, an easy task given the duo's flagrant use of her stolen credit card. JoLayne provides Moffitt, her friend and an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with the license plate number for the robbers' truck. Moffitt identifies Bode and searches his apartment, deducing that the ticket has likely been concealed inside a condom in Bode's wallet. Moffitt leaves an ominous message on the wall of the apartment that sends Bode's paranoia into overdrive, leading to the robbers fleeing south in Bode's truck. Before doing so, Chub orders Shiner to kidnap Amber, a waitress at Hooters who Chub has become smitten with, and bring her to his and Bode's refuge.
Meanwhile, Tom is surprised to hear from his attorney that his house has exploded. His girlfriend, Katie, is married to a violently jealous circuit court judge named Arthur Battenkill, Jr., who sent his law clerk Champ Powell to burn down Tom's house. The clerk accidentally ignited the fire with himself inside, and his charred remains are similar enough to Tom's for the coroner to declare Tom dead. Unknown to Tom, his lawyer plans to use the situation to his client's advantage: his estranged wife, Mary Andrea, has gone to absurd lengths to avoid being served with divorce papers, including assuming false names and traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada. Tom's lawyer predicts that Mary Andrea, an actress, will attempt to capitalize on the publicity surrounding his "death", and return to Florida long enough for her to be served.
Bode and Chub steal a motorboat and plan to make a refuge on Pearl Key, a small island in Florida Bay. However, because of their inept navigational skills, Tom and JoLayne easily follow them in a boat of their own. As Tom predicted, tension over Amber's presence -- coupled with Shiner's belated realization that Bode and Chub never intended to share the jackpot with him -- eventually causes the three men to fall out arguing, allowing Tom and JoLayne to ambush and disarm them. Chub is interrupted in his attempt to rape Amber by a shotgun wound to his shoulder, while Bode is knocked unconscious and tied up, allowing JoLayne to remove a lottery ticket from his wallet. Krome sends Amber and Shiner back to the mainland in the thugs' boat, with Amber armed with Chub's revolver to make sure Shiner behaves.
Bode loosens his bonds and tries to escape the island in the only remaining boat. While wrestling with Tom in the shallows, Bode inadvertently kicks a napping stingray, which pierces his femoral artery with its barb. JoLayne does her best to treat Chub's gunshot wound, but can do nothing to save Bode, who dies cursing his own rotten luck. Tom and JoLayne depart the island in the remaining boat, leaving Chub behind with some meager supplies. They collect JoLayne's first lottery payout in Tallahassee, and return to Grange in time to bid against the mob-controlled union for Simmons Wood. At first, Bernard Squires, the union's representative, is ready and willing to outbid JoLayne, but Moffitt drops by and threatens to put him and his real employer in the newspapers. Squires withdraws from the negotiations and flees to South America with $250,000 in cash from the union.
While Shiner is driving her home, Amber is surprised to discover the other winning lottery ticket (the one originally belonging to JoLayne) hidden in an empty chamber of Chub's revolver. With Shiner's reluctant agreement, she decides to return the ticket to JoLayne. The crowning irony of the novel is that, throughout the story, Bode and Chub are the only ones who know that they are the rightful owners of the second winning ticket; the other characters act from the belief that there is only one winning ticket in their possession, which eventually results in both tickets winding up with JoLayne.
A chance meeting at the newspaper office brings Katie and Mary Andrea into contact, and they go to Grange to say their goodbyes to Tom. Katie informs on her husband to the police, leading to his arrest for felony murder. Chub, unable to attract the attention of passing boats or aircraft, eventually dies of thirst and starvation on Pearl Key. Tom and JoLayne, now a couple, and the holders of both winning lotto tickets, decide to make their home near Simmons Wood, now safe from development.
