The book Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, is a memoir that tells the stories of its two authors and central protagonists from their early years to the time they meet, along with their bonding afterward.

Born in 1937, Denver grows up amid hardship and segregation in Red River Parish, Louisiana. At an early age, he begins working as a sharecropper for a rich farmer, who, for all practical purposes, has enslaved Denver. After nearly thirty years of such indentured labor, Denver escapes from it all by taking the freight train out of the city. Illiterate and unemployable, he is left to fend for himself on the streets.

Ron Hall, born in 1950, has a more comfortable upbringing. His lower-middle-class family is able to provide him with an education that sets him up for a career later on. In college, he meets Deborah. She is unlike the other girls Ron has pursued, and the two begin dating. During the Vietnam War, Ron is posted in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a weapons support administrator.

Ron and Deborah marry after he has served out the draft period. Ron becomes a respectable art dealer after a stint marketing Campbell's Soup and then working as an investment banker. He becomes wealthy, and his work exposes him to the lifestyle of the rich and famous—a lifestyle he aspires to emulate. Deborah’s disinterest in material wealth, however, is in contrast to Ron’s appreciation of the luxuries that money can buy, and the two grow apart.

Ron has an affair with an artist in Beverly Hills, and Deborah forgives him. After seeking help from a marriage counselor, the couple move to Fort Worth, Texas. Denver, meanwhile, has served ten years in Angola prison, one of the most violent penitentiaries in the United States. Upon his release, he finds himself homeless in Fort Worth.

Occasionally, Denver sleeps at the Union Gospel Mission in exchange for the work he does around the shelter. Deborah and Ron visit the mission as well. Although at first Ron is averse to interacting with the homeless, of whom he has a low opinion, he begins to take interest in the mission’s work once he sees that Deborah is passionate about helping out. Deborah exhorts Ron to be friendly with Denver, who is dealing with a host of demons from a lifetime of rejection and abuse.

Deborah convinces Denver to open up and manages to show him a more humane side of society, but then tragedy strikes in the form of Deborah’s death from breast cancer. The ordeal shakes Ron’s faith in God. Denver stands by Ron's side, and his wise counsel finally rouses Ron out of his state of self-pity. Deborah’s legacy of good work for the mission generates $350,000 as funding for the institution. Ron and his children accept Denver as a part of their family, and Ron proposes that he and Denver write a book about their experiences.