The civil rights movement is coming to Atoka County and a whole lot of the white residents don't like it, they're prepared to commit assaults, rape, or murder to get their point across. In the middle of this powder keg, County Sheriff Bascomb (Lee Marvin) endeavors to keep the peace as best he can, together with Mayor Hardy who is the owner of the local lumber company and the bank on which most of the residents depend. Mayor Hardy employs most of the county and he wants a stable environment for business, which includes keeping enough poor blacks around to do the most menial work for menial pay. After Nancy Poteet (Linda Evans) is apparently raped by a black man, all hell breaks loose. Butt Cutt Cates (Cameron Mitchell), a loud mouth hardcore Klansman is arrested for raping a black woman prisoner, while his sworn enemy Garth (O.J. Simpson), a young black man who witnesses a Klan murder, gets a rifle and starts dishing out justice of his own. Before it's over, the major part of the county is at war and bodies are falling everywhere.