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An aging Ozarks sheriff attempting to keep the peace between a group of anti-gay evangelicals and one supportive of gay rights must lead two murder investigations that may be related to the on-the-ground conflict. The strife was caused by a friend of his with a hormone problem who disturbs a young basketball player with an inappropriate question. Agitators, led by men from outside the sheriff's county, cause street encounters with LGBT defenders, led by a forceful woman deacon of an Episcopal Church in a more populous county.
An anti-gay preacher is shot in the heart by a slug fired from a .45 Colt revolver. His hot teen widow, who has a baby daughter, is attracted to big men such as the sheriff and causes him a Jimmy Carter moment. She attracts older men like honey attracts bears. The same gun is used to kill a one-legged reporter who writes about the conflict but has other involvement with it. The investigations range over several counties.
Actions of a wealthy family of gun lovers prompt the sheriff to deputize a retired professor to keep watch on them. The "spy" has affairs with both a daughter and daughter-in-law of the parents and becomes a target for their small-arms practice. Their Derringer-packing son jams with a black trio while supporting a white supremacist organization connected with a brothel and, it's rumored, organized crime.
The father, who killed a man in a fight when he was young, conspires with a construction contractor to force blacks to sell their properties, thereby despoiling their community. The sheriff of an adjoining county, brother-in-law to the murdered preacher, likes to practice his draw but is less than eager to aid the murder investigations. There are two attempted murders, one of the preacher who takes the place of the first, and one of the beautiful wife of the man who carries the Derringer.
The peace loving sheriff is forced to shoot and wound his first human in a gun battle with the would-be operators of a mobile meth lab. He is an elder of his church and is left burdened by guilt for his behavior with the teen widow and for having almost taken a human life.