In the midst of the Great Depression in tiny Roxboro, Alabama, Sara and her son, Sam, struggle to make ends meet within a community where Christian values are preached but rarely practiced. The county's wealthiest and most influential citizen, Milton Marion, is bent on ruining Sara's life and wrestling Sam away from her. But as the story unfolds, a defiant farmer and his son, an unsatisfied redemption-seeking sheriff, and a Negro bootlegger risk...