Summary
The Chamber tells the story of a seventy-year-old man’s last bid to save himself from execution. Sam Cayhall has been on death row for more than twenty years when a young lawyer named Adam Hall appears on the scene and declares his mission to save him. As Adam digs into Sam’s past, he unearths scenes of horror and confessions of wrongdoing that repulse him. However, as the pair
of unlikely companions works together, they eventually become close. They begin to realize that they are bound together by more than a mission. Sam’s hopes for salvation rise as Adam submits appeal after appeal, but the law seems to be against them. In the end, there is just one piece of information—the name of Sam’s accomplice— that could save Sam’s life or cost Adam his.
Chapters 1– 4: The story starts with a recounting of Sam’s involvement in the bombing in Greenville, Mississippi.
It then shifts its focus to Kramer and his two sons as
they enter his office moments before the bomb explodes. Kramer’s sons are killed instantly, and Kramer loses both his legs. Sam is also injured by the blast—he is walking towards the office when the dynamite goes off. The police find him in his car later, and after they ask him some questions, they arrest him on suspicion that he had been involved in the bombing. Sam is found guilty of murder and sent to prison, where he will eventually be put to death in the gas chamber. Adam takes on Sam’s case—even though Sam wants to represent himself—and at their first meeting, Sam figures out that Adam is his grandson. He finally agrees to let Adam represent him.
Chapters 5–8: Adam starts by trying to attack the death penalty itself, pointing out that two men had suffered horrible deaths in gas chambers. Meanwhile, Roland Forchin is becoming more and more interested in Sam’s case and the new lawyer who is representing him. He decides that it is time to travel to Memphis to make sure that Sam stays quiet about the true events that took place on the night of the bombing so long ago. Adam isn’t aware of Roland, though, as he is busying talking to the FBI agent, Wyn Lettner, who was in charge of the bombing case. He tells Adam things that he would rather not know, such as the fact that Sam was involved in killing black people before the bombing. By the time he learns the truth about Sam’s dark past, his appeal that gas chambers are cruel has been quashed by the courts.