Deaf-mute John Singer becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly, the book's heroine (and loosely based on McCullers), finds solace in her music.

Miss Amelia runs the town's only cafe and controls the locals through the careful distribution of her secretly brewed hooch. Her eccentric existence is threatened with the arrival of a dwarf who claims kinship and the reappearance of her rejected husband.

Miss Amelia runs the town's only cafe and controls the locals through the careful distribution of her secretly brewed hooch. Her eccentric existence is threatened with the arrival of a dwarf who claims kinship and the reappearance of her rejected husband.