After forty years of wandering, E.F. Bloodworth has returned to his hometown - a neglected corner of Tennessee. His wife has withered and faded, and his three sons have grown up and become angry. Warren is a womanizing drunkard, Boyd is motivated by jealousy to find his wife and her lover, and Brady casts hexes on his adversaries from his mamma's porch. Only Fleming, the old man's grandson, respects him with the deference a man of his age deserves and sees through the hatred to see how it may poison a man's soul. Fleming's determination to resist this familial curse is finally inspired by Raven Lee, a sloe-eyed beauty from another town.