The film opens with a soldier and nurse getting out of two 1940-style cars in the middle of night. The nurse runs up to the soldier and the camera switches to reveal this to be a scene from a film. Three Piggly Wiggly store workers in Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia—Rosalee, Cathy, and Pete—are watching and as the nurse on screen asks for forgiveness and the soldier agrees, the women in the audience are moved to tears as Pete is clearly unimpressed. As the ladies wonder what Tad Hamilton—the star of the film—is doing at that moment, their prediction of praying is proven false as the scene cuts to Tad—described in the next scene by his agent—"drinking, driving, smoking, leering, and groping all at the same time".