Captain Bill Tedge is warned by his crew for trying to push the _Marie Louise _boat up the Mississippi bayou. It was full of insurmountable water hyacinths, and they had to urgently unload their cargo of starving cattle. There had been a drought, damaging short-range grass, and the dying cattle were sold for cheap. Because of this, Tedge would profit even during the most unfavorable financial circumstances, so he stubbornly continues the voyage.   Tedge cursed the Federal Government for not maintaining the countless water lilies. Instead, the boats spray them with oil and soda to weaken them. Milt Rodgers, a cattleman on the boat, admires the beauty of the water lilies, and Tedge remembers Milt's girlfriend singing by the river of lilies. Tedge, filled with frustration, attributes his failed swamp ventures to Milt, his girlfriend, and the water lilies. In a fury, Tedge decides to sail the boat landward, despite criticism from his crew. The boat breaks into a bar, bursting in flames. When seeing its impossible rescue, Tedge saves important documents from his bunk and encounters Milt Rodgers there, who pleads to save the cattle on the deck. Tedge punches him across the face, hurling him toward the burning cattle.   Boarding a skiff alongside the boat's engineer, Crump, and a black worker named Hogjaw, Tedge encounters more lilies that force the crew to disembark on the nearest bank. While the other two were suspicious of Rodgers's death, Tedge asserted he "took him on out o' kindness."   On the bank of Au Fer, surviving cattle gathered wearily, and Rodgers appeared, searching desperately for water in his exhausted state. As he brushed against the lilies, he bit one, realizing they carry freshwater. He finds Tedge's skiff and attempts to take it. Tedge finds him escaping and pursues him. Attempting to catch up to Rodgers, Tedge struggles to swim against the water lilies. Beating against the lilies in the open water, Tedge loses sight of the skiff. He attempts to overcome the unrelenting plants by swimming under the roots, desperate to kill Rodgers. Soon, the lilies overtake the space around him, and with no form of rescue, Tedge drowns with a water lily in his hand.