The story, set in 1933, focuses on young Jim Nolan (Wolff), the latest recruit of a small political party who’s taken under his wing by the smooth-talking and more experienced Mac McCloud (Franco). Their approach to fighting for workers’ rights is to infiltrate a group of apple pickers in California who have been told by the local landowner, Bolton (Duvall), that their pay won’t be $3 a day but actually just $1 a day because “times are tough”.