A serial killer strikes Sugar Grove, Virginia. A rising journalist comes to town to cover the story : her investigation will soon lead her to the town's darkest secret, at her own risks.

An elderly farmer finds out that he owes a huge inheritance tax. Land developers show up to offer him a predatory deal. His neighbors are having similar problems. That's when an old acquaintance of his arrives for a visit and lends a hand.

Ab Snopes (Tommy Lee Jones) is a Southern tenant farmer whose unrelenting and violent nature proves to be his undoing in William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Snopes sets his employer's barn on fire when he thinks he's been treated unfairly. His son, Sarty, is horrified. Snopes escapes justice for lack of proof, but he and his family are told to move on. No sooner do they move than Snopes is offended by his new rich employer. Torn between trying to win his father's acceptance and his aversion to what his father will do, Sarty must make a decision and act quickly. Adapted by Academy Award winning screenwriter Horton Foote, Faulkner's complex world of class divisions and hostile family relationships comes to life through a boy's attempt to liberate himself from hatred and poverty.

Six women get fired from a bank while the director gets a huge raise.