The Rivals of Amziah King

In rural Oklahoma, beekeeper and bluegrass musician Amziah King is called on by OSBI Agent Sunderland to identify a truckload of stolen honey. Amziah's former employee Remmick arrives with his friend Colmar to help, but the honey extractor tears off Colmar's scalp. Retrieving the scalp and Colmar's lucky hat, Amziah and his right-hand man Jimmy speed to the hospital, where Amziah receives medication for his heart condition.

Amziah reunites with his former foster Native American daughter Kateri, who just lost her mother, sharing his homespun philosophy about church potlucks and introducing her to his musician friends and Brazilian American neighbors. He offers her a job caring for his honeybee farm, and they spend a chaotic day removing a swarm of bees from an elementary school, as she comes to share his love for the honeybee, bluegrass music, and their tight-knit community.

However, Amziah's hives are stolen, and the shock leads him to suffer a fatal heart attack. Following his death, his lawyer and bandmate Rippy informs Kateri that she has inherited his struggling honey business with its debts. Kateri refuses to sell, determined to find the thieves and continue Amziah's legacy. Jailed for drunk driving, Jimmy urges Kateri to track down the hives, but her inquiries turn up empty as the business runs out of honey.

An owner of the previously stolen honey points Kateri to a fellow beekeeper who unknowingly bought some of Amziah's missing hives. With the information-gathering services of paroled criminal Oat, Kateri discovers that Amziah's bees were stolen by Wenyon Amos Stone, a thieving beekeeper working for powerful businessman Dob McCoy. After following Wenyon, Kateri locks him in his overheated honey processing room, killing him.

Kateri enlists Remmick's help to steal back Amziah's bees. They sneak onto Wenyon's remote property, floating the hives on makeshift rafts down the river to their getaway truck. The heist is caught on camera, and Remmick is arrested for breaking parole. The recovered bees and honey are sent to auction, and Rippy helps raise money for Kateri but she is outbid by Dob, who has grown rich by taking advantage of his neighbors.

Vowing to destroy Dob's life, the vengeful Kateri nearly poisons his dog, and realizes that he is caring for his critically ill wife. At a church potluck, Kateri secretly prepares a meal for Dob to take to his wife, poisoning her with castor beans. Her suspicious death enables Sunderland and the police to attempt to arrest Dob on murder charges, but he leads them on a high-speed chase. Dob is struck by a freight train and flees in a stolen truck but is pursued by armed citizens in another pickup and gunned down. Following his death, Sunderland is able to expose his crimes.

Remmick and Jimmy are paroled, joining Kateri and their friends in stealing back Amziah's hives again, and a sympathetic Sunderland considers the matter closed. Having satisfied her desire for revenge and saved Amziah's beloved bees, Kateri is determined to become the new queen bee of the local honey trade.