Carnelle (Holly Hunter) enters the Miss Firecracker beauty pageant which her hometown of Yazoo City, Mississippi, stages every Independence Day (United States), hoping to emulate her cousin Elain's (Mary Steenburgen) win some years previous. Carnelle was taken in as a waif by her Gentry cousins after the death of her mother and grows up promiscuous, brash, feminine and lacking in gracefulness. Few expect she can win, her closest friends and relatives think she is heading for a big disappointment, but Carnelle is ever hopeful.