Three women who haven't seen each other for years meet at a motel to talk about what they've done since they were together, and also to plan a heist of the King of Sex's crown during the upcoming Mardi Gras carnival. They pull the heist and are pursued by relentless detectives, and they must use their feminine charms to escape incarceration.

In this Depression-era tale, Calef McKinney, traveling from Michigan to California, stops in Spooner, Missouri, where Lute hires him for odd jobs. Calef gets involved with Lute's niece, Hannah. But she's married to Sidney, a wife-beating drunk who hopes to inherit his uncle-in-law's money. Sidney and an eccentric preacher plot against Calef, who finds it difficult to conceal his mysterious past and his growing affection for Sidney's wife.