Mordecai C. Jones (Scott) – a self-styled "M.B.S., C.S., D.D. – Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Dirty-Dealing!" – is a drifting confidence trickster who makes his living defrauding people in the Southern United States using tricks such as rigged punchboards, playing cards, and found wallets. He befriends a young man named Curley (Sarrazin), a deserter from the United States Army, and the two form a team to make money. In their escapades, they wreck a town during a hair-raising chase in their stolen car, steal a truck loaded with moonshine whiskey that they sell, break out of a sheriff's office, and discover a riverboat brothel. In the ending scene, Mordecai explains how he sees himself.