A short time after Vinson Gowrie, a white lumberman, is found murdered in a small town, Lucas Beauchamp, a black landowner, is arrested and charged with the killing. As Lucas is led by Sheriff Hampton through an angry crowd of people gathered at the jail house, he turns to Chick Mallison, a white youth he has befriended, and asks him to summon John Gavin Stevens, Chick's lawyer uncle, to his aid. Recalling the November day he first met Lucas, Chick later tells John the story of how he and the black man became friends: While on a rabbit-hunting expedition with his black friend Aleck, Chick falls into an icy river and nearly drowns, but is rescued by Lucas, who owns the land around the river. Lucas takes Chick to his home and gives him food and dry clothes, but Chick, who has not been taught to respect black people, does not know how to react to his generosity. One day, at Fraser's General Store, Chick witnesses a group of white men taunting Lucas, and sees Vinson attempt to strike Lucas on the head. While Chick watches in motionless silence, some of the men surround Vinson and prevent him from completing the assault. Chick concludes his story by telling John that, despite his silence, Lucas considers him to be his friend and has placed his trust in him. John reluctantly agrees to take the case, and when he and Chick visit Lucas in his jail cell, Lucas tells them that he was beaten by a white lumberman, who forced him to identify his business partner, Vinson, as the man who was stealing lumber from him. Lucas is cautious and refuses to tell John any more details about the incident, but he privately asks Chick to dig up Vinson's body to prove that the bullet that killed Vinson was not fired from his gun. Although John opposes Chick's plan to exhume Vinson's body, Chick later finds an ally in Miss Eunice Habersham, an elderly woman who believes that Chick may be on the trail of an important clue. Late one night, Miss Habersham, Aleck and Chick go to the chapel at which Vinson is supposed to have been buried and begin digging up the grave. When they open the coffin, however, they are surprised to discover that it is empty. The discovery of the missing corpse convinces John and the sheriff that Lucas is innocent, and they join Chick in his search for Vinson's body. With help from Nub Gowrie, Vinson's father, John, the sheriff and others follow a trail of footprints that lead to a patch of quicksand near a river. Vinson's body is retrieved from the quicksand, after which it is determined that the bullet that killed him could not have been fired from Lucas' gun. Back in town, an angry crowd of white men, led by Vinson's brother Crawford, surrounds the jail house and demands that Lucas be lynched. Meanwhile, inside the jail house, Lucas tells John and Chick that although he was present when Vinson was shot and can identify Vinson's business partner, he never saw the man who fired the gun. Concluding that Vinson's business partner must be the killer, and that he is trying to frame Lucas for the murder, the sheriff and John decide to set a trap for the killer. After announcing that Lucas has been released from jail, the sheriff waits for the killer to try to silence Lucas. The plan works, and the killer is revealed to be Crawford. Crawford is arrested, and as he is led into the jail house, the townspeople gathered outside the jail house disperse.