In the Mississippi Delta, failing, bigoted, middle-aged cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan has been married to pretty, empty-headed 19-year-old virgin Baby Doll Meighan for two years. Archie Lee impatiently waits for Baby Doll's 20th birthday just a few days away when, by prior agreement with Baby Doll's dying father, the marriage can finally be consummated. In the meantime, Baby Doll still sleeps in a crib, wearing childishly short-nightgowns and sucking her thumb, while Archie, an alcoholic, spies on her through a hole in a wall of their decrepit antebellum mansion, Tiger Tail. Baby Doll's senile Aunt Rose Comfort lives in the house as well and is tormented by Archie Lee.