Lawyer Willie Croft (Glenn) is indifferent, letting his practice run itself, when the town's richest family begins a determined effort to obtain the farm of an old black woman, Elvira Backus (Richards). Elvira claims she was given her land by the dead family patriarch, Jonathan Holt, and finds an unlikely ally in Jonathan's aging sister, Hannah Loftin (Davis), whose mental competence is being challenged by the Holt clan. As for Croft, his growing involvement in the case intensifies when he begins to fall in love with Hannah's high-spirited niece, Whitsey (Curtis).