 Blues man Ches Collins (Bobby Short) sings a song in his nightclub act that recounts the 1948 murder of Louis Sweet, Sgt. Wilson Sweet s (Geoffrey Thorne) grandfather. Neither Louis  body nor his brand-new Packard sedan was ever found. The only official witness to the crime, Delbert Mueller (Roy Lind), is at death s door but will not reveal any further details. The sheriff who took Mueller s original statement, Nathan Bedford (James Best), knows more than he will say, which frustrates Sgt. Sweet s quest for the truth.