When a trio of ex-convicts led by Mattie Appleyard is released from prison, they hope to open a general store using money Mattie has saved during his 40-year sentence. This attempt is met with great resistance from a corrupt prison official and the banker who issued Mattie the check.—Greg Helton
In 1935, after forty years in a West Virginia prison, three released convicts wish to open a legitimate business using the $25,000 earned in prison, but a crooked prison guard in cahoots with the town banker plans to defraud them.