Harry Howell

Wallace a wealthy landowner in Meriwether County, Georgia, has virtually unlimited power in the county, including having the sheriff under his control. When he murders a share cropper he thinks that he is powerful enough to get away with it. Because the act of murder took place in Coweta County, it is under the jurisdiction of the Coweta County sheriff who hunts the murderer without trepidation.

During the American Civil War, a lonely Indiana farm widow finds love when she takes in an injured traveling salesman, only to learn he is a Confederate spy on the run from Yankee patrols.