Bessie Pearl Pennycutt's marriage into the Campbell family presents lessons in chickenology, digging for lost Confederate treasure and trips across state lines in search of a missing man who is supposedly responsible for the corpse deputy Bobby Carl Rodgers found in the Alabama woods while answering nature's call. Butting heads with her new husband's aged housekeeper doesn't make the transition from single to married life any easier. And then there is the task of getting on the good side of the family matriarch, 97-year-old Dixie Mosconi, who views Bessie as a "loose woman."