Delia Byrd is a native of Cayro, Georgia, and a recovering alcoholic who lives in Los Angeles with her surly ten-year-old daughter, Cissy. Celia is the former lead singer of the obscure blues-rock band Mud Dog. Cissies father, Randall, another member of Mud Dog, is killed in a motorcycle accident in the opening scene of the novel. Grief-stricken and penniless Delia packs up her daughter and drives almost non-stop cross-country back to Cayro. After a disappointing reunion with the grandfather who raised her, Delia enrolls Cissy at the local school and gets a job as a cleaning woman.
Delia has another two daughters by abusive Clint, a man she is still married to. These teenagers, Dede and Amanda, live with their paternal grandmother who has custody for them, a puritanical pious old witch. Delia embarks on an odyssey to rescue them. Failing to make headway with the devious grandmother Delia in desperation approaches Clint, who is gravely ill with cancer. He is willing to persuade his mother to give up control over her granddaughters if Delia moves back in with him and provides his care until he dies. After thoroughly cleaning the house, Delia moves all three girls in.
Things between Delia and her daughters are tense at first. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is as rigid and religion obsessed as her grandmother, frequently telling Cissy that she is going to hell. Dede is a sexually precocious twelve-year-old who likes to smoke cigarettes. They initially ignore their mother and younger sister - while hating their father, remembering the times he assaulted Delia. Cissy, unable to get along with any of her female relatives, takes pity on the bedridden Clint and begins reading to him. Eventually, Clint tells her about the early days of his marriage to Delia, expressing remorse about what he did to her.
Cavedweller was made into a 2004 film by Lisa Cholodenko
