When compulsive gambler Little Joe Jackson (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) dies in a drunken fight, he awakens in purgatory, where he learns that he will be sent back to Earth for six months to prove that he deserves to be in heaven. He awakens, remembering nothing and struggles to do right by his devout wife, Petunia (Ethel Waters), while an angel known as the General (Kenneth Spencer) and the devil's son, Lucifer Jr. (Rex Ingram), fight for his soul.