In 1935, the one-eyed murderer, Mattie Appleyard, who refers to his obviously unmatched glass eye with the persona, "Tighe," wakes up alongside bank robber Lee Cottrill and a young convict named Johnny Jesus after being released on the same day from the West Virginia State Penitentiary in the fictional town of Glory. The trio has spent forty years behind bars, and Appleyard receives a check for $25,452.32 as compensation for his long prison labor—a hefty sum during the depths of the Great Depression. Their shared dream is simple and audacious: to strike out on their own and open an independent grocery store in a distant coal camp community that still lacks a proper, customer-friendly shop.
The three men are escorted by the prison Captain and Sunday School teacher, Dallas 'Doc' Council, to Glory’s local train station. The ride becomes the opening act of a dangerous plan: the check can only be redeemed in person back in Glory, so Council has secretly conspired with Glory banker Homer Grindstaff to ensure the money will never be cashed. Council even hints that the blood money will partly support missionary work and a vacation Bible school, weaving religious rhetoric into a deadly plot.
At a later train stop, Council, along with his accomplices, the manipulative radio singer Junior Kilfong and the steady but sinister Steve Mystic, aims to strike. Mystic has already described Appleyard, Cottrill, and Johnny as atheists, and Kilfong asks for reassurance about their beliefs, a detail that foreshadows the moral games at play. The plan is jeopardized when guilt-ridden conductor Willis Hubbard overhears the plot and sounds the alarm, allowing the three escapees to slip away. In the confusion, Kilfong shoots mining-supply salesman Roy K. Sizemore, and Council coldly finishes the job by killing the wounded Sizemore and pinning the blame on Appleyard. The killer escapes with Sizemore’s dynamite.
The next day, Council revisits Grindstaff at the bank. Appleyard, armed with dynamite strapped to his chest and more packed in a suitcase, marches in and uses the threat of violence to force the bank to cash the check. The famous line echoes in the tension: Appleyard proclaims he will blow up the bank “and half this city block” if the money isn’t paid. The banker reluctantly complies, and the trio’s plan to secure their future appears momentarily to be within reach.
The group splits up to lay low and meet later, but trouble follows them. Cottrill ends up boarding a rickety houseboat owned by a down-on-her-luck prostitute named Cleo and is joined by Chanty Thorne, a sixteen-year-old girl Cleo has taken in, hoping to sell her virginity for $100. Appleyard and Johnny show up, but Council’s bloodhound marks their trail. The two fugitives manage to escape in a skiff, leaving behind the dynamite-laden stash, but Johnny stays concerned about what will happen to Chanty, so they circle back when Council departs.
Before leaving, Council informs Cleo about Appleyard’s money, and at gunpoint the young men surrender the suitcase that Cleo believes holds the cash, in exchange for Chanty. Cleo, suspicious of what she’s really got, tries to pry open the locked suitcase and, in a desperate act, sets off an explosion aboard the houseboat, killing herself. The now-fractured trio finds themselves trapped on a boxcar, with a guilt-ridden conductor, Hubbard, returning to help them escape. He’s too afraid of Council to come forward, though, keeping his truth hidden.
The chase resumes as Council, Mystic, and Kilfong close in on the fugitives at an abandoned house. In a brutal turn, Council kills Mystic and Kilfong, sparing no one but himself to claim the loot. Johnny hurls a stick of dynamite at Council, but the weapon is retrieved by Council’s loyal bloodhound and brought back. Appleyard yanks the remaining dynamite out of the room and hurls it away, this time sealing Council’s fate with a deadly explosion.
Arrest follows. The money is confiscated, and Hubbard eventually confesses what he knows, leading to Grindstaff’s arrest. With the truth out, Appleyard and his friends are exonerated, and the long-awaited moment arrives: Appleyard is finally able to cash his check and, in effect, claim the life that had eluded him for decades. The story closes on a note of uneasy justice, where ambition, crime, guilt, and loyalty collide in a small Appalachian town.
