In a small town in the American South, four men, young and old, consider their pasts and their futures. J.T. Malone, a lonely middle-aged drugstore owner, discovers he is dying and tries to atone for his misspent life. The aged Judge Clane resists integration and longs for the old ways of the South, white his idealistic grandson, Jester is drawn to Sherman, a volatile, blue-eyed black orphan in search of his own identity. Gradually they will discover that their lives are inextricably bound together. Through their interlocking stories Carson McCullers explores prejudice, secrets and redemption with both humour and poignancy.