- Details the lives of two feuding families of bootleggers, the Pruitts and the Woodalls, in rural 1920s and 1930s Arkansas.
- In 1921, 10-year-old Othar Pruitt witnesses his bootlegger father murdered by a member of a rival bootlegger family. 12 years later, the adult Other Pruitt and his partner-in-crime, Dewey Crenshaw, make a living as moonshiners and cross-state bootleg runners whom work for Othar's grandfather's distillery, harass the local sheriff, flirt with various women at local ho-downs, and continue to clash against the rival Woodall family and their chief competitors for control of the bootlegged trail runs.—Larry B.
- In Arkansas in the year 1921, 10-year-old Othar Pruitts bootlegger father, Silas Pruitt, is murdered by Bobby Joe Woodall, the son of a rival family. At his fathers grave, Othar is consoled by his grandfather, Grandpa Pruitt, who explains that families in the area have resorted to the illegal manufacturing of alcohol for generations because the land is no longer fertile for farming. Grandpa Pruitt takes Othar under his wing and teaches the boy about moonshining.
In 1933, Othar and his cousin, Dewey Crenshaw, have become ambitious bootleggers and pranksters who outwit the local sheriff. However, Othar is arrested for spying on girls who are skinny-dipping. Dewey rescues his cousin by roping the jailhouse to a steam engine, causing the building to topple.
In time, Othar falls in love with a pistol-packing hairdresser named Sally Fannie Tatum. When Grandpa Pruitt is murdered by the Woodalls, Othar and Dewey seek revenge. After a gunfight that leaves Woodall family members dead, the cousins look for their fortunes in California.
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