In Texas, a woman and her young daughter head down to another town where the girl's irresponsible, hotheaded and immature father has just been released from prison on parole.

With her infant daughter Margaret Rose in tow, Georgette Thomas pulls up stakes from Tyler, Texas to head to Columbus, Texas to be reunited with her husband, Henry Thomas, who has just been released from prison on parole. Columbus is Henry's hometown. Margaret Rose has never met her father. Henry is not yet ready for this reunion as he is an irresponsible soul, who has problems looking after himself, let alone a wife and infant daughter. People in Columbus are doing whatever they can to help Henry, people such as Slim, the Deputy Sheriff who has known Henry since they were kids, and the Tillmans, who have given him a place to live as well as a job to do chores around their house. However, Henry is reluctant to give up songwriting and performing with his rockabilly band, the honky-tonks where he plays the environments which exacerbated his previous life problems. Henry has the unrealistic belief that he will become the next Elvis Presley. Beyond these issues, the biggest obstacle in the Thomases becoming a happy, united family may be Miss Kate Dawson, the judgmental woman who raised Henry. Miss Kate, who still acts as his unofficial voice of reason and who believes the only right path for Henry is to go back to school, believes that Henry has never made a good decision on his own.—Huggo

Henry Thomas is out on parole in a small Texan town and, in the evenings, he is the lead singer in a band. He is being pressured by his foster mother to give up his singing and go back to school. His wife, Georgette, and young daughter unexpectedly come to town to live with him. However Henry's hot temper leads him into knife fights, and jeopardizes his parole.—Will Gilbert