A lawyer assigned to the clemency case of a woman on death row finds himself forming a deep friendship with her while he tries to prevent her impending execution.

Ernest P. Worrell is a bank janitor sent to jail when people mistake his identity for a look-alike.

Ernest, a lovable loser who works as a summer camp handyman and dreams of becoming a guidance councilor, must find a way to inspire a group of juvenile delinquents as well as stop a shady strip mining company from closing the camp.

Don, a nineteen-year-old sophomore at a Texas junior college, tries to escape his Bible Belt upbringing for life in the Pacific Northwest at the most godless campus in America.