COOKIE'S FORTUNE mischievously uncovers the legacy of JEWEL  MAE "COOKIE" ORCUTT (Patricia Neal), an eccentric matriarch, whose tattered ante-bellum home in Holly Springs, Mississippi, is adorned with mementos of her deceased husband, the beloved gambler and bon vivant, BUCK.  Flouting convention, COOKIE shares the manor (and games of one-upsmanship) with the easy and loyal WILLIS RICHLAND (Charles S. Dutton), a middle-aged black man with a penchant for catfish enchiladas, Wild Turkey bourbon and Theo's Bar, a bluesy jukejoint owned by THEO (Rufus Thomas), but dominated by the voluptuous singer, JOSIE (Ruby Wilson). 

COOKIE's two estranged nieces - the imperious CAMILLE DIXON (Glenn Close), a self-appointed aesthete of  letters and theatre; and her obedient younger sister, CORA DUVALL (Julianne Moore), who seems little more than a ventriloquist's puppet to the grandiose CAMILLE - live across town in what CAMILLE must find a frustratingly modest home.  CAMILLE deplores COOKIE's indifference to social status; and COOKIE simply can't tolerate CAMILLE's pretensions.

COOKIE's one cherished relative, EMMA DUVALL (Liv Tyler), CORA's daughter, has just repatriated to Holly Springs from a failed adventure in Biloxi.  The restless EMMA, who's accumulated 234 dollars worth of parking tickets (a Holly Springs record), is an object of desire for local catfish supplier MANNY (Lyle Lovett) and the earnest if somewhat inept sheriff's deputy, JASON (Chris O'Donnell). EMMA shares with WILLIS an affection for COOKIE and Wild Turkey; both of which have earned CAMILLE's profound disapproval. 

As the town's impresario, CAMILLE has cast Holly Springs' most colorful  locals in the Easter pageant play - a reworking of Oscar Wilde's "Salome."  Among the principal players are the town's dignified (and only) lawyer, JACK PALMER (Donald Moffat) as Herod; the jovial liquor store owner PATRICK FREEMAN (Randle Mell), as a hammy, Cro-Magnon portrait of  John the Baptist; and CORA as Salome, directed so relentlessly by CAMILLE that CORA's daily language becomes peppered with Biblical phrases. 

On the day before Easter, even though late to her own play rehearsal, CAMILLE rushes into COOKIE's house to collect a cutglass fruit bowl, an heirloom whose ownership is the subject of a family dispute.  After venturing upstairs in the seemingly empty home, she makes a grisly discovery: COOKIE, dead through some "misadventure". The ensuing "murder" investigation invents a life of its own: it casts ) WILLIS as the most likely suspect; the ubiquitous PALMER as his all-knowing lawyer; and fishing mate and friend LESTER BOYLE (Ned Beatty) as the reluctant police lieutenant. It also triggers the arrival of two criminologists from the neighboring town of Batesville - a zealous forensics expert (Matt Malloy), and the suave investigator OTIS TUCKER (Courtney B. Vance).

From WILLIS's jailcell (where EMMA camps out as a self-avowed con), to JOSIE's sensual lair at Theo's, to COOKIE's manor (stripped of its police tape by squatters CAMILLE and CORA), TUCKER will encounter the liveliest "un-murder" mystery of his career.  This surprising and often darkly comedic inquisition will unearth family secrets, unmask small-town loyalties and rivalries, and unravel the fate of Cookie's fortune.