The book (AILD) is about a family trying to bury their mother, Addie Bundren. As the novel opens, Addie is lying in her bed dying in her family's farmhouse in southeastern Yoknapatawpha County, while outside her oldest son, Cash, is sawing and hammering together her coffin. Her second son, Darl, convinces his brother Jewel (Addie's third son) to go with him to pick up a load of lumber. Darl's apparent goal is to make sure that Jewel, Addie's favorite son, will not be at her side when she dies. While Addie's daughter, Dewey Dell, stays wit ....