Title: Oh Brother Where Art Thou

In 1937 Mississippi during the Great Depression, three convicts, Ulysses Everett McGill, Pete Hogwallop, and Delmar O'Donnell, escape from a chain gang and set out to retrieve a supposed treasure Everett buried, before its locale is flooded to make a lake and provide electricity for the state. The three get a lift from a blind man driving a handcar on a railway. He tells them, among other prophecies, that they will find a fortune but not the one they seek. The trio make their way to the house of Wash, Pete's cousin. They sleep in the barn, but Wash reports them to Sheriff Cooley, who, along with his men, torches the barn. After Pete angrily blows up Cooley's police van, Wash's son helps them escape.

Pete and Delmar are baptized by a group of Christians at a river. The trio then picks up Tommy Johnson, a young black man, who claims he has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the ability to play the guitar. In need of money, the four stop at a radio broadcast tower where they record a song as The Soggy Bottom Boys. That night, the trio part ways with Tommy after their car is discovered by the police. Unbeknownst to them, the recording becomes a major hit.

The trio inadvertently fall in with bank robber George "Baby Face" Nelson, and help him with a heist, before he leaves them with his share of the loot. The next day, the group hears singing. They see three ladies washing clothes in a river and singing. The ladies drug them with corn liquor and they lose consciousness. Upon waking, Delmar finds Pete's clothes lying next to him, empty except for a toad. Delmar is convinced the ladies were Sirens and transformed Pete into the toad. Later, one-eyed Bible salesman Big Dan Teague invites them for a picnic lunch, then mugs them and kills the toad.

Everett and Delmar arrive in Everett's home town. Everett confronts his wife Penny, who changed her last name and told his daughters he was dead. He picks a fight with Vernon T. Waldrip, her new "bona fide suitor" and ultimately loses. They next see Pete working on a chain gang and later that night sneak into Pete's holding cell and free him. As it turns out, the ladies at the river had dragged Pete away and turned him over to the authorities, at which, and under torture, Pete gave away the location of the treasure to the police. Everett then confesses that there is no treasure. He made it up to convince the others he was chained with to escape with him in order to stop his wife from getting married, and his real reason for being sent to jail in the first place was for practicing law while unlicensed. Pete is enraged at Everett, because he had two weeks left on his original sentence, and must now serve fifty more years for escaping.

The trio stumble upon a night rally of the Ku Klux Klan, who are planning to hang Tommy. The trio disguise themselves as the Color Guard and attempt to rescue Tommy. However, Big Dan, who is revealed to be a Klansman, reveals their identities. Chaos ensues, and the Grand Wizard reveals himself as Homer Stokes, a candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election. The trio rush Tommy away and cut the supports of a large, flaming cross, leaving it to fall onto Big Dan, killing him.

Everett convinces Pete, Delmar and Tommy to help him win his wife back. They sneak into a Homer Stokes campaign gala dinner she is attending, disguised as bearded musicians. The group begins a performance of their now popular radio hit. The crowd recognizes the song and goes wild. Stokes recognizes them as the group who interfered with his mob. Furious, he interrupts the group's performance and demands them to be arrested, accidentally exposing his white supremacist views, and the crowd responds by running him out of town on a rail. Pappy O'Daniel, the incumbent candidate, seizes the opportunity, endorses the Soggy Bottom Boys and grants them full pardons. Penny agrees to marry Everett with the condition that he find her original ring.

The next morning, the group sets out to retrieve the ring, which is at a cabin in the valley which Everett had earlier claimed was the location of his treasure. The police, having learned of the place from Pete, get ready to arrest the group. Callously dismissing their claims of having received pardons, Sheriff Cooley orders them hanged. Just as Everett prays to God, the valley is flooded and they are saved. Everett finds the ring in a rolltop desk that Tommy rides, and they return to town. However, when Everett presents the ring to Penny, it turns out it was not her ring, she doesn't want that one, and she can't remember where she put the real ring. The blind man is seen pushing his handcar once again. 