Eldridge, a twelve-year-old West Virginia boy, and Felton, a banjo player, set out to reunite Tyrane Percival with his long-lost love, Leona, by transporting Tyrane's corpse--on ice in a kiddie pool in the back of a pickup truck--to bury it next to Leona's in Louisiana, but Leona's brother is determined to keep "that jailbird" Tyrane out of the family plot.