Payne's comic novel is a tour through a suburban slice of the working class. Set in a decidedly postmodern Appalachia, Kentuckiana focuses on the lives of the Miles family. Invented by a real-estate developer who is authoring a report on the neighborhoods he has created, the imaginary Mileses and their neighbors populate his Garden Springs subdivision in Lexington, Kentucky.

Tracing the family's progress through the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s, Kentuckiana introduces us to the folkways, drugs, sex, schemes, bruises, and theatrics that color the everyday existence of the Mileses.

Once the real-estate developer has presented his creations, the members of the Miles family take on life and speak in their own voices; as the narrative is furthered by each successive imaginary narrator, the lines between fiction and reality become increasingly blurry, and the high-strung Miles family seems to seize control of its own rollicking existence.

Finally, as the real-estate developer begins to plan for his own retirement, his son Junior must buy out his father's businesses - including the Miles family narrative - and, in falling in love with the imaginary Elaine Miles, is forced to question his very own existence.