In the mid-20th century, in Milan, Georgia, a middle-aged pharmacist called J.T. Malone is diagnosed with leukemia. It seems that his failing medical school isn't even the worst predicament facing him. He only has a year or so to live.
In the town, Judge Fox Clane is something of a big-wig, but his own health is limited too. His obesity and age, not to mention his diabetes and his stroke, are major threats to his health. His grandson is John Jester. Judge Clane plans to resurrect a Confederate identity among his town so he can reintegrate his old Confederate money back into currency, restoring his wealth.
One day, Judge Clane finds a black child and takes on the boy as an assistant, but the boy, Sherman Pew, eventually leaves, because the judge is a racist. Sherman is an orphan, and after the judge's employment, he tries to find a new place to live, eventually moving into a white neighborhood. The townspeople won't tolerate a black person in a white community, so they kill the boy in a bombing. The scene concludes with the news that the US Supreme Court has officially decided to end segregation in public schools.
The judge is obviously enraged by the news, but in his anger, he forgets to plan a speech, so when he goes into the radio station to vent, he is left speechless and starts reciting Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, much to the disdain of the town. At his home, the pharmacist Malone has left the problems of this world behind him, and he dies peacefully in the company of his wife, Martha.
