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The protagonist, Native Hunnicutt, a poor white man from a run-down shack in the small town of Palmyra, marries the wealthy widow Maebelle largely for her excellent cooking, financial security, and comfort. However, his true passion remains his long-standing secret affair with Josene, Maebelle's black maid (an octoronk – one-eighth black blood), which symbolizes the fragile boundaries of racial segregation.

Caldwell realistically depicts everyday life in a town where racial segregation is the legal and social norm, but where whites break the rules at night in secret relationships. Native is not an ideological racist, but rather a passive participant in the system through social conventions and fear. When Maebelle discovers the affair, her jealousy and anger set in motion a chain of events: accusations, police brutality, a unfair trial, and collective punishment of the black community, highlighting the systemic bias of the judiciary and white supremacy.

The novel is typical of Caldwell's style – raw, without restraint, focused on poverty, sexuality, violence and social problems of the South (similar to "Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre"). Without pathos or sentimentality, it criticizes the hypocrisy of segregation and the inhumanity of racism in the 1950s/1960s. The work is controversial for its overt depiction of racial mixing and violence, but it remains an important testament to American racial tension.