A writer returns home to his estate after service in World War I. He has developed a very bad case of depression due to a war wound concerning his genitalia. He contemplates suicide, but recovers after becoming interested in his caretaker's 12 year-old war orphan niece, who now lives in the manor.

A Southern Colonel, his three sons, and a card shark embark on an odyssey through the Southwest carrying a coffin full of stolen money with which the Colonel plans to revive the Confederacy.