When the family's North Carolina farm is about to be taken by the banks during the Depression era, two boys decide to start robbing banks and return the money to the people.

Upon his discharge following the Korean War, soldier Jerry moves back to the small town in South Carolina where he grew up. Jerry is reunited with his old flame Leslie, gets a job as an insurance salesman and begins to heal from the emotional damage caused by the war. But Jerry faces a serious moral dilemma when the job he depends on for his livelihood leads him to take advantage of an elderly African-American woman and the members of her community.

A mentally fragile woman is pushed over the edge by the death of her brother, to whom she was inordinately close.

Single mother Susan Essex admirably picks up the pieces after the split from her husband Matthew, and she can depend upon her daughter Justine for support. When Justine learns that her friend Vicky has been spending time with her own boyfriend, Ryan, Justine confronts Vicky and a fight erupts. Sprawling into the woods behind Justine's house, the fight escalates further and Vicky winds up dead. Justine and her best friend Ashley make a pact to keep the mistake a secret, but will she be able to keep her mother convinced that she wasn't involved?