William Wallace, a resident of the rural town of Dover, Mississippi, goes out one night to drink and doesn't return home until morning. When he finally does get back, his pregnant wife Hazel is nowhere to be found. In the bedroom, he finds a letter from her that explains that she has gone to drown herself in the river in response to his drunkenness and staying out late. When he reads it, William is so emotional that he rips the letter up. He then goes to find his friend Virgil, who accompanied him in his drinking the night before. The two set out to drag the river to search for Hazel's body. They call up their friends who bring their entire families, the Malones and the Doyles. They also enlist the help of Old Doc, who owns a wide net they will use to drag the river. The group of men makes their way through the woods toward the river. Once they arrive, they begin the process of dragging the net along the river, stretched from bank to bank. They catch many fish and an alligator, but don't find Hazel. After several hours of this, a man none of them knows shows up out of the woods, and leaves after he speaks with Virgil briefly. By evening, the men cook the fish they have caught, eat, and then fall asleep. William Wallace jolts back awake and the other men wake after him just as an intense storm falls on them. The storm passes, and the party returns to Dover disheveled from the storm with many fish, to the amazement of the townsfolk._ _William Wallace and Virgil are at Doc's house returning the net when Doc admits that he did not believe Hazel was in the river to begin with, but had never had such a good time dragging the river as he did with the group. This greatly upsets William Wallace. He ends up fighting Virgil for trying to calm him. When William Wallace arrives back at home there is a rainbow over his house, despite it being nighttime. When he enters the house, he hears his name called and walks into the bedroom to discover Hazel there, unchanged. She had not been gone at all, and when he found the letter she had been hiding nearby in the room. The two smile at each other as if nothing happened, and go to prepare themselves for the supper she has made.