"The Effigy" is the story of how a young man known as "The Killer Cook" and a young woman ("Lisa Treatorn"), living in a small fictitious town in a fictitious county ("Madison County") become entangled in a relationship and have a child in 1986. The man, an inexperienced cook, learns how to cook in a restaurant, while the woman works at the telephone company. They are separate most of the day, but in the evenings they get together and contend over how they are going to afford to raise their child. This fantasy becomes clearly exposed through the images and story of "The Effigy".