Horses All Over Hell follows the twin tensions of Marty's drinking and Joanna's newfound religious sobriety—in a small Idaho city on the Snake in the early nineties. In "Starlings," Marty and Aunt Darlene enter Joanna's bedroom with a sack of beer late at night, seeking to revive her old, drinking self. "They Work at Night" features Marty's escalating drinking. Also presented is Joanna's intense new friendship with an artist named Lucy. In "Sending Those People Home," ten-year-old Cory laments that his mom isn't like the other church mothers. He keeps her best photographs under his bed. Despite this family's troubles, and whatever their fate, they ache for each other and make their own, often poignant gestures toward love.