The Bean Trees opens
in rural Kentucky. The novel’s protagonist, Taylor Greer, who is
known at the beginning of the novel by her given name, Marietta,
or by her nickname, Missy, remembers a moment in her childhood when
Newt Hardbine’s father was thrown to the top of the Chevron sign
after his tractor tire exploded. Ever since then, Taylor has been
afraid of tires. Taylor goes on to tell the story of Newt Hardbine,
a peer of Taylor’s who died while Taylor was still in high school.
Although Newt and Taylor seemed like identical kids when they were
small, Taylor was the one to escape small-town life. She did so
by avoiding pregnancy, getting a job working at the hospital, and
saving up enough money to buy herself an old Volkswagon bug. About
five years after high school graduation, Taylor says goodbye to
her beloved mother, Alice Greer, and leaves Pittman County, Kentucky,
for good.
The protagonist decides that she will drive until her
car runs out of gas and then take a new name based on wherever she
is when her car stops. She ends up in Taylorville, and changes her
name from Marietta to Taylor. Her car breaks down in the middle
of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and she stops in an old bar
for a cup of coffee and a hamburger. As she sits in her car, getting
ready to leave, a woman approaches and puts a baby in the front
seat of Taylor’s car, telling her to take it. She tells Taylor she
is the sister of the child’s mother and that the baby was born in
a Plymouth car. The woman leaves with no further explanation. Taylor
is bewildered, but drives off with the child. They go to a hotel,
and while bathing the baby, Taylor discovers that the baby, a girl,
has been abused and sexually molested. She names the baby Turtle
because the girl clings to things like a mud turtle.
Eventually, Taylor and Turtle make it to Tucson, Arizona.
When Taylor’s two back tires blow out, Taylor goes to an auto-repair
shop called Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. There she meets the owner,
a kind, wise woman named Mattie. Mattie takes to Turtle right away.
Taylor moves into a Tucson hotel with Turtle and finds a job working
at the Burger Derby.
The narrative switches to the story of Lou Ann Ruiz,
another Kentuckian living in Tucson. Lou Ann has been abandoned
by her husband, Angel. On January 1, she
gives birth to a son, Dwayne Ray. Lou Ann’s mother and Granny Logan
come west to visit the baby, and Granny Logan brings water from
the Tug Fork River in Kentucky, which she suggests should be used
to baptize the baby. When Angel comes home to gather up some of
his things, he pours the water down the drain.
Meanwhile, Taylor has started her new job, but she quits
six days later. She begins to look for a place to live, and finds
a room for rent listed in the paper. The room turns out to belong
to Lou Ann. The two women become fast friends, and Taylor takes
the room. Without work, Taylor is left with no option but to take
a job working for Mattie at Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. One day Taylor
meets two of Mattie’s friends, Estevan and Esperanza, a married
couple from Guatemala. Soon, it is evident that they are illegal
aliens living with other illegal aliens in Mattie’s home above the
tire shop.
A month or so later, Taylor takes Turtle to see a doctor
and finds that Turtle’s growth has been stunted because she was
abused. Turtle is not a baby, as her size indicates, but a three-year-old.
That same day, Angel tells Lou Ann that he is leaving her for good.
Mattie’s friend Esperanza attempts suicide. When Estevan
comes to tell Taylor this news, he ends up divulging the story of
their past. He tells her that he and Esperanza had to leave behind
a child in Guatemala. The government wanted the names of union members from
Estevan and Esperanza and took their daughter, Ismene, as a way
of forcing them to tell. Choosing to save seventeen lives instead of
trying to get their daughter back, the couple fled their country. Estevan
spends the night on Taylor’s couch. Taylor realizes she is falling
in love with him.
After a few weeks, Lou Ann gets a job at a salsa factory,
supporting herself in the absence of her husband. No sooner does
she start her new job than Angel sends a package with presents for
Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray, and a letter asking her to come live with
him in Montana, or, if she does not want to do that, to let him
come back and live with her in Tucson. After consideration, Lou
Ann refuses to take him back.
On the night of the first summer rain, Mattie takes Esperanza, Estevan,
and Taylor into the desert to see the natural world come to life.
Turtle is left with her baby-sitter, a blind woman named Edna Poppy.
Edna and Turtle go to the park, and because of her disability, Edna
does not notice when a prowler approaches Turtle. Taylor returns
and hears as much of the story as Edna can tell: Edna heard struggling
and swung in the direction of the attacker with her cane. She hit
him and then felt Turtle tugging on the hem of her skirt. Turtle
does not seem hurt, but she has stopped speaking and has the same
vacuous look in her eyes that she had when Taylor first saw her.
Turtle’s trauma and the difficulties of Estevan and Esperanza make
Taylor depressed. To make matters worse, the police investigation
into the attack on Turtle reveals that Taylor has no legal claim
on Turtle. Taylor will be forced to give her to a state ward or find
a way around the law. The social worker in Tucson gives Taylor the
name of a legal advisor in Oklahoma, where the laws are different.
Mattie becomes worried about Estevan and Esperanza’s
safety. A recent crackdown on illegal immigration will force them
to find a new home and a way of getting there. Taylor decides she
will transport Estevan and Esperanza to another sanctuary for illegal
immigrants in Oklahoma. While there, she will look for Turtle’s
relatives and see if they will consent to a legal adoption. Once
in Oklahoma, Taylor returns to the bar where she received Turtle
but finds that it has changed owners. There are no signs of the
people she met there seven months before. Taylor, Esperanza, and
Estevan decide to go to the Lake o’ the Cherokees. During that time,
Taylor concocts a plan to convince the authorities in Oklahoma that
Estevan and Esperanza are Turtle’s biological parents.
Once in the office of Mr. Armistead, the legal authority
in Oklahoma, Esperanza and Estevan pretend to be Turtle’s biological
parents. Esperanza sobs real tears at the prospect of giving up
Turtle, and Taylor realizes that Esperanza is grieving the loss
of her own daughter, who looked so much like Turtle. Taylor and
Turtle drop off Esperanza and Estevan at their new home, a church
in Oklahoma. Taylor says a tearful goodbye to Estevan. Taylor then
calls her mother, who comforts her. Taylor and Turtle head back
to Tucson, a place that both of them now call home.
