When Sweety Barrett loses his job at a travelling circus he arrives in the port of Dockery, looking for work. His naïve and simple nature makes him easy prey in this corrupt town of smugglers dominated by the vicious detective Mannix Bone. Sweety strikes up a friendship with a six-year-old boy called Conor whose father Leo resumes a vendetta with Bone. Just when it seems that Bone is getting away with murder, Sweety exacts a spectacular revenge, which transforms him into a redeeming hero for the whole town.
