As Sylvia watches the impact JJ's return has on her community, she mentors Marcus, a young black man who is trying to make a better life for himself from a nearby prison cell. Ava's mother, Sylvia, is a primary voice in the novel – Sylvia is concerned when JJ returns to town hoping to woo her married daughter. Ava is married to Henry, who feels trapped in Pinewood without much prospect of promotion. JJ was once the high school sweetheart of Ava, a young woman working as the bank manager in Pinewood. Now going by Jay, he is the first black man ever to develop land on Brushy Mountain Road, where the wealthy white folks live. JJ, a black man who was raised in Pinewood and left to make something of himself in the world beyond his small hometown, has recently returned. The poorer black residents are forced to look up at Brushy Mountain, which is full of the mansions of the wealthy white residents of Pinewood. This is particularly true of black families, who live at the bottom of the sweeping mountain that borders the town. Once a land of industry, there are now few jobs in Pinewood, and families struggle to make ends meet and make a name for themselves. The story begins with an introduction to Pinewood – a town that has been hit hard by the outsourcing of manufacturing to China and the lasting impact of the Jim Crow era. Compared by many critics to the classic novel The Great Gatsby for its focus on impossible, idealistic romance and the American dream, No One is Coming to Save Us follows JJ, Ava, and Sylvia as they struggle to make new lives for themselves despite the rhythmic, claustrophobic trappings of their lives in Pinewood.

No One is Coming to Save Us is a novel by Stephanie Powell Watts about the lives of the black residents of a racially and economically segregated town of Pinewood, North Carolina.

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