Loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey" the movie deals with the picaresque adventures of Ulysses Everett McGill and his companions Delmar and Pete in 1930s Mississipi. Sprung from a chain gang and trying to reach Everett's home to recover the buried loot of a bank heist they are confronted by a series of strange characters--among them sirens a cyclops bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson (very annoyed by that nickname) a campaigning governor and his opponent a KKK lynch mob and a blind prophet who warns the trio that "the treasure you seek shall not be the treasure you find."