The Powell brothers, Muir and Moody, are as different as Cain and Able. Muir is an innocent, a shy young man with big dreams and not the slightest idea of what to do about them. Moody, the older and wilder brother - embittered by the death of his father, by years of fighting his mother, and by jealousy of Muir's privileged place in the family - takes to moonshine and gambling and turns his anger on his brother.