A mysterious but pleasant stranger arrives in the Missouri hills and befriends a young backwoods girl, which doesn't sit well with her moonshiner fiancé who has vowed to find and kill his own father.

Young Matt Matthews, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted his mother and left her to die. His obsession contributes to the hatred rampant in the mountains. However, the arrival of a stranger, Daniel Howitt, begins to positively affect the mountain people, who learn to shed their hatred under his gentle influence. Still, Matt does not quite trust Howitt.—Jim Beaver <[email protected]>