Ben Quick arrives in Frenchman's Bend, MS after being kicked out of
another town for allegedly burning a barn for revenge. Will Varner owns
just about everything in Frenchman's Bend and he hires Ben to work in
his store. Will thinks his own son, Jody, who manages the store, lacks
ambition and despairs of him getting his wife, Eula, pregnant. Will
thinks his daughter, Clara, a schoolteacher, will never get married. He
decides that Ben Quick might make a good husband for Clara to bring some
new blood into the family.
