Jesse is a moonshiner, barely able to survive as a hardscrabble farmer in West Virginia. Government agents raid his farm but cannot find his still. He is arrested but the sheriff lets him go. He moves his family to Ohio but cannot find work because of the Depression, so he moves to a farm intending to make moonshine again. A neighbor tries to help but Jesse rebuffs him. The neighbor prays, then the whole church comes to help Jesse plant corn as the first part ends.