While waiting to go to the old Vandergriff home, Heck reunites with Negro boyhood friend, Cracker, and when he goes to bed that night his mind turns back to May, 1934, when he was struggling to support his dysfunctional family and save his sick little brother Billy. Jobless, he resorts to selling bootleg whiskey on his butter-and-egg route in town and passing the hat at his Saturday night musicals. He meets Gloria, a proper girl to marry who is the granddaughter of the county’s richest family, but the romance is threatened by his coarse neighbor Willa Sproggs who accuses Cracker of rape as a way of striking back at Heck who rejects her. Heck manages several romantic encounters with Gloria before becoming so desperate for money he drives his promiscuous step-mother and his dad’s ex-convict friend to the town’s bank where they made a “withdrawal” while dressed as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Their efforts are a disaster, leaving Heck with more troubles and no money for Billy’s doctor bills. The ultimate tragedy occurs when Heck’s romantic encounters with Gloria and a violent confrontation with Gloria’s vicious aunt result in criminal charges being filed on him. Knowing he has to stay out of prison to support his destitute family, Heck flees the area.