The picture is set in post-reconstruction Kentucky and the supporting cast features Henry B. Walthall, Hattie McDaniel and Stepin Fetchit.

Personable Judge Priest (Will Rogers), known to his contemporaries as "Billy", presides over court in Fairfield, Kentucky in 1890; Jeff Poindexter is accused of chicken theft.

Senator Horace Maydew, a rival in an election bid to the judge's seat, as well as the prosecuting attorney in Jeff's case, who after some distraction by Priest and the court onlookers, is found innocent.

Priest is vocal about her hopes that Maydew's daughter, Virginia, would be a proper societal match for Rome, and pushes him in that direction.

The Senator pushes hard for a guilty verdict, but Reverend Ashby Brand has information that will demonstrate Gillis' long standing good moral character which Priest helps to reveal as associate counsel for the defense.

In the role as Jeff Poindexter, director John Ford gave Stepin Fetchit some room to expand his comic performance.

Right before the shooting of Judge Priest, Fetchit caused a commotion at a benefit show at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

Stepin Fetchit apparently doubted her acting abilities at the beginning of the production, but soon realized he was working with a very talented performer.