One of the most frequently dramatized of all William Faulkner stories, Old Man is based on a section of Faulkner's 1939 novel The Wild Palms. Set during the cataclysmic 1927 Mississippi river flood, the story revolves around the curious relationship between prison convict J.J. Taylor (Arliss Howard) and a young, pregnant woman named Addie (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Pressed into service to rescue victims of the flood, Taylor finds Addie stuck in a tree, her husband nowhere in sight. Managing to get Addie down, Taylor finds himself cut off from the other rescuers, and thus is solely responsible for the future wellbeing of the stranded woman and her unborn child.