A broad comedy, but it makes its point by laughing at segregation, not at the people involved in it. The story follows Reverend Purlie Victorious Judson, a Black self-made traveling preacher who returns to his segregated Georgia hometown with a mission to win back his family inheritance. As a Black man, that's a tall order. He has a plan to buy back Big Bethel, the community’s church, so that he can preach freedom to the cotton pickers. The church, like the town, is in the grip of racist tyrant Ol' Cap'n Cotchipee.