 The story starts just before the Civil War, showing Fisk (Arnold), Boyd (Grant), and Luke (Oakie) conning Southern townsfolk into buying bars of soap that, might, have a $10 gold piece inside. Found out, they re chased out of town and escape across the Mason-Dixon Line just as the war starts. Fisk hatches a plan for him and Boyd to return to the South and buy cotton then smuggle it to the North where Luke is to sell it to the Northern textile mills. By the end of the war they have made millions, only to find out that Luke had been re-investing their money into Confederate Bonds. This fact-based movie shows Jim Fisk as one of the greatest con-men and entrepreneur s in history. It concludes with his involvement in "Black Friday", the Financial Panic of 1869, with fellow financier Jay Gould (who s not represented in the movie) and their attempt to corner the U.S. gold market. There s a love triangle between Fisk, Boyd and Mansfield (Farmer), which is also based on historical accounts.