Wealthy oil man Shugfoot Rainey and his live-in girlfriend, Linda, have been shacking up for five years, and their relationship has grown contentious enough that Shugfoot wants her out. He's sent for his stripper niece, Jonelle (who he refers to as "Baby Doll"), to take her place, but Linda loves the cantankerous old goat and doesn't want to leave her home. She checks with a lawyer and learns that she is legally Shugfoot's common law wife, so she buys herself a ring and lets him know that she's staying put. Jonelle arrives in town and realizes she's been shut out of her cushy arrangement, so she moves in with her sister and brother-in-law, Sheriff Jody. Five years earlier, Jody and Jonelle were an item, and the sheriff is anxious to continue their illicit fling, but all Jonelle wants to do is get rid of Linda and get her hands on her uncle's considerable fortune. When Jody won't help her, Jonelle turns to Bull, the local bootlegger who supplies moonshine whiskey to Shugfoot. Together they hatch a plan to poison the old man, which drives Linda to exact a ghastly revenge.