Two wealthy white women from Dallas, Ola and Bonnie Dee, and their husbands, Gus Ben and Clay, arrive in a Texas town. They are all traveling together on a hunting trip. They sit at a drugstore drinking rum and making racist comments about Black people. They watch their African American driver, Raby, fall asleep at the wheel while he waits for them. To wake him, Clay slams his head against the wheel and makes him stand on the side of the road until they are ready to leave.

Clay makes Ola and Bonnie Dee buy groceries even though Ola has never been to a grocery store. They buy a random assortment of strange groceries. The men declare that Raby needs to do the shopping because the women did too poorly of a job. Clay continues to antagonize Raby. Before they return to the road, the group stops to look at a sheep rancher's farm. They run into Barney Till, a cowboy and the owner of the ranch the group is renting.

Bonnie Dee looks back on her life and experiences with men. She does not love her husband Clay and is interested in Barney. Ola decides she wants to write to her Black maid and talks with Raby about her. The men come back after not killing anything. They decide to go to a different area the next day. They will not return for a few nights, leaving their wives back at the house with Raby and Barney. Ola begs her husband to stay, but he refuses. Meanwhile, she overhears Clay telling Raby to take care of the women while the husbands are gone but to keep Bonnie Dee in the house.

Bonnie Dee tries to leave the first day to see Barney, but Raby stops her. On the second day, Barney comes to the house, but Raby keeps the two from being together once again. However, Bonnie Dee sneaks out that night. She says she sees Barney, but Raby says that she is delirious and has been bitten by a poisonous snake.