Paul, the owner of a topless go-go bar on the Sunset Strip, isn't having a good day. His girlfriend, unbeknownst to him, is planning to rob his club, and his wife is having an affair with the hunky bartender.

In this Depression-era tale, Calef is traveling from Michigan to California and stops in Spooner, Missouri, where Lute hires him for odd jobs. Calef gets involved with Lute's niece, Hannah. But she is 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.