Following the events of ''White Lightning,'' Gator McKlusky has just been released from prison and is living in the Okefenokee Swamp with his father and daughter. In New York, a federal agent named Irving Greenfield is conferring with the governor of Georgia about problems in the fictional county of Dunston, which has been taken over by a corrupt racketeer named Bama McCall. Knowing that Gator is an old friend of McCall's, Greenfield proposes picking him up and coercing him into working with the agents to gather tax-evasion evidence against McCall. To persuade the governor, Greenfield reminds him that an election is coming up, and having "cleaned up" Dunston County would look good on his political resume. The governor is convinced and gives Greenfield "whatever he needs."