In 1950's rural Alabama it's the cotton harvest and it's make or break time for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner, piano player Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt and desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits away from Touissant's, the rival joint across the way he plans for a special one-off gig which will either save him or confirm his desperate fate.