Lena Grove a pregnant teenager has made her way to Mississippi in search of her babys father She hitches a ride into the small town of Jefferson which is home to a planing mill One of the workers at the mill Joe Christmas is a brooding racially ambiguous man who appeared suddenly at the mill one day in search of a job After gaining employment he was soon joined at the mill by another man named Joe Brown The two formed a partnership making and selling liquor illegally and eventually quit their j