It's summer 1955 in the piney woods of East Texas where local men wander into Charlesetta's Top o' the Hill Café almost every night for comfort, solace, and companionship. Times are changing, the Klan is active, and young black men have been disappearing or turning up dead.

This night, Delmus wants to celebrate getting a new job, but the other regulars are skeptical. They try to warn him as they joke, feed the jukebox, and play cards until betrayal catches all of them and life at Top o'the Hill is changed forever.