: USA, 1932. A Negro, sentenced to death for another murder, has the gift of healing. He cures the wife of the head of the prison from cancer, but this does not save him from execution.

The novel was written on behalf of Paul Edgegum, who lives in a nursing home. In order not to lose the remnants of the mind, he writes down the events of 1932 that changed his life.

Part 1. Two dead girls

Paul serves as the head of the prison guard in the death row bloc, which because of the green linoleum is called the Green Miley. In the room adjacent to Mila there is an electric chair. That year, another three was added to the three Miles guards - Percy. This cruel young man, a relative of the governor, could get any job, but he chose a block of suicide bombers, and Paul has to endure it.

In the fall, John Coffey, a Negro of enormous height and physique convicted of the death penalty for the murder and rape of white twin girls, is transferred to Mila. Coffey is very meek. He is afraid of the dark, seems a little inhibited and cries all the time. In his strange eyes, “an expression of calm absence,” as if Coffey himself was somewhere far away.

From the newspapers Paul finds out about his crime. The daughters of the owner of the cotton farm disappeared at night from the covered terrace. After a long search with dogs, they were found in a forest glade. John Coffey rocked dead naked girls, cried and said: "I tried to get everything back, but it was too late." No one doubted the black man's guilt, although during the search the dogs found another trace.

Paul seeks to maintain a calm atmosphere on Mile, but with the advent of Percy, peace is impossible. Not only prisoners, but also guards hate him.

It resembled a serving of arsenic injected into a wedding cake.

Prison boss Moores calls Paul and asks for a little more patience. Percy is going to transfer to a clinic for the mentally ill, but before that he wants to command the execution - this is his condition. Paul agrees on everything.

In the summer, before the arrival of Coffey, a very smart mouse appears on Mila. The animal regularly goes around empty cameras, as if looking for someone. Percy tries to kill the mouse, but she escapes in the straitjacket for violent, which on Mila serves as a pantry.

Part 2. The Mouse on the Mile

The mouse comes to Mile only in the absence of Percy. Soon, Edward Delacroix was transferred to Mila. It seems to Paul that the mouse was waiting for him. Little bald Delacroix, nicknamed Del, is convicted of rape, murder and set fire to. Having committed the crime, he seemed to have splashed out the evil that had accumulated in him and turned into a modest and quiet man.

Percy hates Affairs and constantly scoffs at him. Percy calms down only when Paul promises that he will command the execution of the Cause.

It's funny how some people change under the influence of the right stimulus.

Del calls the mouse Mr. Jingle. The mouse runs around the hands of the Cause and rolls a wooden reel. Del believes that it was he who trained the mouse, but the guards are convinced that Mr. Jingle knew this before.

While Paul's urogenital infection worsens, and Prison Chief Moore discovers that his wife has brain cancer, they are transferring Violent Bill to Mila. This puny, fair-haired nineteen-year-old from the category of “troubled children” managed to do a lot of evil. Having barely appeared on Mila, Bill is trying to strangle the guard, and they stun him with a blow to the head.

Part 3. Hands of John Coffey

On this day, Paul is particularly suffering from his infection. Coffey, sitting in a cell quietly during the confusion, calls him to him. The rules forbid it, but Paul seemed to be attracted to Coffey's "alien" eyes. The black man presses his hand to Paul's groin, and that pierces something like an electric charge.Then the throbbing pain disappears, and “a cloud of small black insects” flies out of Coffey’s mouth. They whiten and fade. Paul believes that he "received healing, real, miraculous, from the Almighty God." He asks Coffey how he does it, but he shakes his head. John does not remember what happened to him yesterday, but he knows how to heal.

Paul does not understand why God put a wonderful gift into the hands of a child killer. He goes to the crime scene. The journalist who wrote about the murder is convinced of Coffey's guilt.

Such as your Negro is able to bite at the first opportunity, as a thoroughbred dog can bite if it wander into his head.

The day of the execution of the Cause is approaching. Percy should put a sponge soaked in brine on his crown, which will conduct current directly into the brain.

Having violated the rules, Percy comes too close to Wild Bill's cell, and he grabs him. From fear, Percy pisses in his pants. Del notices this and laughs.

The night before the execution, Del plays with Mr. Jingle, throws him a reel. She rolls out of the camera. The mouse runs after her, Percy steps on him and, pleased with revenge, leaves.

Part 4. The terrible death of Edward Delacroix

Coffey asks for a dying mouse, "there is still time." He brings Mr. Jingle to his face, inhales sharply with his mouth, then again releases a cloud of black midges from his mouth, and the mouse returns unharmed to Case.

Preparing the Cases for execution, Percy puts a dry sponge under contact, and the Frenchman burns alive. Paul cannot turn off the electricity while Delacroix is ​​alive, because then everything will have to start all over again. Finally, Affairs subsides.

The helmet slid to one side, but when we removed it, almost all the skin from the head and the remaining hair peeled off with it, firmly adhered to the metal.

Frightened, Percy justifies himself, but Paul understands: he wanted to do a petty dirty trick, but did not suspect what the result would be. Paul tells Percy not to be touched: they might be fired because of him, and finding work during the Great Depression is not easy. Mr. Jingle, waiting for the execution in Coffey's hands, feels through him the torment of the Cause and disappears forever from Mile.

Paul reports the incident to Mursu, but he is not in trouble in prison: his wife is dying. Paul believes that Coffey can help her, and gathers Miles' guards at home.

Part 5. Night trip

The guards decide to secretly bring Coffey to Moors' house and draw up a detailed plan.

First, they neutralize Violent Bill, pouring sleeping pills into his drink. Then Percy is packed in a straitjacket and locked in a soft room. Coffey already knows that he has to cure the white lady.

Violent Bill is unconscious, but when Coffey walks past his camera, he gets up and grabs him by the hand.

Coffey's reaction was amazing. He ... cried out, letting out air through his teeth, as if he had touched something cold and unpleasant.

Friends manage to quietly lead Coffey to the prison fence. He is being taken to the boss’s house in an old truck. Moores meets them with a gun in his hand, but Coffey calmly walks over to his dying wife.

Going to the bed, Coffey bends down, presses her mouth to the woman's lips and takes a deep breath. A strange cry is heard. Coffey pulls away, and Paul sees that the woman is healthy. This time, Coffey does not exhale midges. On the way to jail he becomes ill.

Part 6. Coffey walks Mile

The guards hardly bring Coffey to the camera. Then they let Percy go and try to intimidate him. Paul, however, is sure that Percy will not be silent.

Freed, Percy heads for the exit with Miles. When he walks past Coffey’s camera, he grabs him, presses his lips to his mouth and lets out black midges. Without thinking anything, Percy walks up to Raging Bill's cell, shoots him six times, then midges fly out of his mouth. From this day, Percy does not utter a word and is recognized insane.

Paul again goes to the place where Coffey was arrested, talking to the assistant sheriff. He undertakes to help him, and meets with the father of the murdered girls.It turned out that shortly before the tragedy, he hired an assistant - Violent Bill, who, according to Paul, killed the girls. Coffey found them, wanted to revive, but did not have time. The black man found out about this by touching Bill, and used Percy as a weapon. Due to skin color, Paul can neither re-open the hearing nor organize Coffey's escape.

The day of execution is coming. Coffey tells Paul that he is tired of feeling the pain of the people around him and wants to leave. During the conversation, he takes Paul's hand, and he feels a tingling sensation.

John now did not know what he was doing. And suddenly I got scared ... Inside me, lights were kindling. Not only in the brain, throughout the body.

When Coffey releases his hand, Paul and his eyesight and hearing are sharpened for a while.

Guards cry during the execution of Coffey. Paul is sure that they kill the miracle of God, and this will be counted by him after death.

Thanks to the touch of Coffey, Paul lives up to one hundred and four years. Mr. Jingle, a long-grayed man, lives in a barn near a nursing home. Paul found this world's oldest back door mouse. There, Mr. Jingle dies, and Paul lives a very long time.

We all deserve to die, without exception, I know that, but sometimes, God, the Green Mile is too long.