Paris Trout is a vile Southern bigot. He owns a store and is a loanshark. He often sues people and so his lawyer Harry Seagraves eventually meets Paris' wife Hannah. A former schoolteacher she made the mistake of her life when she married Paris who brutalizes her. Soon Paris goes beyond the overgenerous bounds of what a man in his position can get away with even in the segregated South leading to a spiral of perverse insanity.