A rural Tennessee lawman who's trapped in a loveless marriage, Sheriff Tawes (Gregory Peck) devotes himself fulltime to his work in order to achieve satisfaction. When he meets Alma McCain (Tuesday Weld), the daughter of moonshiner Carl McCain (Ralph Meeker), he's immediately attracted to her. Despite their age difference, Alma takes up with Tawes, an affair that is encouraged by her father as a way for him to manipulate the sheriff into allowing him to continue his illicit whiskey-making business. And as Tawes's hopeless infatuation with the girl leads him to compromise his professional ethics, he jeopardizes his career and his marriage to his wife, Ellen (Estelle Parsons).