The story follows Temple Drake, a privileged young woman from a wealthy Southern family, who finds herself entangled in a web of crime and exploitation. After a reckless outing, Temple is abducted and taken to a dilapidated plantation, where she becomes the victim of brutal criminal Popeye. Her ordeal underscores the tension between her innocence and the predatory world she is thrust into. Meanwhile, attorney Horace Benbow attempts to navigate the murky waters of Southern justice as he becomes involved in the case against Lee Goodwin, a bootlegger wrongfully accused of a murder connected to Temple’s trauma. The narrative spirals into a grim examination of the legal system, human nature, and societal decay.