Sam Tucker is a cotton picker in Texas who decides to start his own farm. He and wife Nona and children Jot and Daisy set out with nothing but two mules and a bit of seed. The land they lease has no working well, so neighbor Devers reluctantly lets the Tuckers share his water supply. They nearly starve and freeze during a hard winter. Come spring, the child Jot falls ill and desperately needs vegetables and milk to survive, but general store owner Harmie uses the Tuckers credit. Sam’s friend Tim offers to help find him a city job in a factory. Sam remains determined to make the farm work, and Harmie answers the family’s prayers with the gift of a cow. Cotton blooms and a vegetable garden is planted. The bitter Devers and his man Finley conspire to ruin the Tuckers, though, because Devers wants their land. After a fight, Devers comes armed with a gun, only to find Sam about to catch a catfish that Devers has been after for years. In return for the fish, he agrees to leave Sam’s family alone. Harmie ends up marrying Sam’s mother and life seems fruitful at last, only to have a terrible thunderstorm ravage the Tuckers’ home. They must start over once more.
