Small-time crook Rooney cons his crippled brother, a street-wise news vendor, into snatching a wealthy, emotionally-disturbed runaway to extort money from her parents, but the brother throws the get-rich-quick scheme awry by falling in love with her.

Ex-slave and former Union soldier Gideon Jackson represents other ex-slaves at the constitutional convention, and is soon elected to the U.S. Senate despite opposition from white landowners, law enforcement and the KKK. He unites with sharecropper Abner Lait, who helps Jackson unite ex-slaves and white tenant farmers.