Savannah lawyer Rick Magruder is at a party celebrating his courtroom victory defending a cop killer when a member of the catering staff, Mallory Doss, discovers her car has been stolen. Having had a few drinks, Magruder offers to give her a lift home, a decision that turns into a one night stand. Rick soon learns that her nut-case father, Dixon, seems to have begun threatening her again. Rick puts the force of his law firm behind Mallory, who he barely knows, has Dixon picked up by the police, and subpoenas the girl's belligerent ex-husband, Pete, to testify against the old man. Dixon is put away in an asylum. However, he soon escapes, putting the lives of everyone who conspired against him in jeopardy.
World War I has left golfer Rannulph Junuh a poker-playing alcoholic, his perfect swing gone. Now, however, he needs to get it back to play in a tournament to save the financially ravaged golf course of a long-ago sweetheart. Help arrives in the form of mysterious caddy Bagger Vance.