GOD'S LITTLE ACRE

Widower Ty Ty Walden and three of his children—sons Buck and Shaw and daughter Darlin' Jill—live in the backwoods of Georgia. Buck's comely wife, Griselda, also lives with the family. Ty Ty's daughter, Rosamund, lives in the town of Peachtree Valley with her millworker husband, Will. The final member of the Walden family is estranged son Jim Leslie, also a widower, who is a wealthy cotton broker living in Augusta.

Ty Ty is a farmer who has been digging fruitlessly on his land for 15 years, searching for the treasure his grandfather left him. Consequently, the farm has suffered from years of neglect.

Pluto Swint arrives to announce he's running for sheriff. He comes around back, where Darlin' Jill is taking a bath in an outdoor bathtub positioned near a handpump and spigot. Knowing Swint is attracted to her, she teases him and asks him to pump some more water. Although Swint keeps his eyes closed, he sneaks a peek.

In the belief that having a person with albinism accompany him on his quest for treasure will bring him luck, Ty Ty kidnaps an albino, Dave Dawson, demanding that he help locate the buried treasure. Dawson, using a divining rod, claims the gold lies on the parcel of land Ty Ty has designated as "God's Little Acre." Ty Ty pulls the cross marker out of the ground, explaining that God told him to move it, thereby absolving him from giving any gold found in this new spot to the church. Darlin' Jill seduces Dawson one night, and the next day, a field worker, Uncle Felix, chases him away at gunpoint, saying, "I ain't going to shoot you, son, but this gun might."

The digging-for-gold project has interrupted farming, and Ty Ty needs money to feed the family and workers. At Felix's suggestion, he goes to his son Jim Leslie's mansion to ask for a loan. An arrogant Jim Leslie gives him the money, but he also makes a pass at his sister-in-law, Griselda, and vows to make her his own.

In Peachtree Valley, the cotton mill has been closed for months, causing considerable tension among the unemployed men. Will is determined to break into the mill and turn on the electricity so everyone can get back to work. In the middle of the night, after drinking heavily, Will leaves his house. Rosamund sends Griselda after him because she knows Will is attracted to her. He breaks open the mill's gates and enters the property. At first, Griselda distracts him from his purpose. They kiss passionately and then disappear into another room. When they emerge with disheveled hair, he escorts her back to the gates and asks the growing crowd to restrain her. He re-enters and turns on the power, and the machines reactivate to the cheers of the crowd.

The caretaker, hearing the rioters' assembly and the mill's power turned on, comes from an inside office and shoots Will for trespassing. The crowd carries his body back to his house. Griselda enters to tell Rosamund the bad news, but Rosamund cries out that she already knows what has happened.

Back at the farm, the Walden family squabbles after Will's funeral, notably Buck, who is angry over Griselda's behavior with Will at the mill. Ty Ty encourages Buck to be happier and to spend more time thinking about God. Jim Leslie arrives to steal Griselda, and Buck fights him. During the fight, Jim Leslie hits Ty Ty in the head with a porch rung. Realizing that his elusiveness has torn the family apart, he jumps between his sons before Buck impales Jim Lesile with a pitchfork and sends Jim Leslie away to prevent further violence. Ty Ty gazes upon his farmland, filled with the massive holes dug over the past 15 years, and declares that he will stop digging for gold if God will protect his sons.

Time passes. Pluto Swint, now elected sheriff, shows off his uniform to Darlin' Jill, now his fiancée. Buck and Griselda have made amends, giving one another more attention. The family contentedly plows the fields for the first time in years, and it looks like they might finally produce a crop. But Ty Ty finds the blade of an old shovel in the ground and speculates about whether the gold might lie in that spot. As he begins digging again, the final scene pans to the final resting place of the marker for God's Little Acre—the pond.

Will, Rosamund's husband, is shot and killed by the mill caretaker after breaking into the closed cotton mill and turning on the power for the unemployed workers. The Walden family's search for gold remains fruitless, and the farm's troubles persist.

The film closes on a note of loss and unresolved longing: Will's death underscores the human cost of economic desperation, while Ty Ty's endless digging leaves the family's hopes unfulfilled. The ending highlights the corrosive effects of obsession, poverty, and unattainable dreams, leaving the Walden clan fractured and their future uncertain.