In the 1940s South an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted he is sentenced to die but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity.