At seventeen Grip McCormack shoots his abusive father off the roof of their Kentucky home. The murder trial dominates the news for months and brings a torrent of notoriety to young Grip, along with a string of female admirers, including Millie—unhinged, tenacious and eighteen years his senior. After spending seven years behind bars, Grip has a parole hearing coming up. Lucky for him. If only life on the outside weren't waiting to get him: his Uncle Edgar wants to kill him, and Millie wants to marry him—and she's already picked out their house—across the street from Uncle Edgar. Grip has three days to decide if he can handle the brutality of freedom again, or if he even wants to try. His surprising 155 IQ (measured by the prison psychiatrist) offers little help and neither does his bungling dead father who keeps getting stuck in prison walls while trying to pass through them. Grip is forced to turn inward to find true freedom as the parole hearing approaches.