In this Maverick story James Garner gets mugged on a riverboat and the next
thing he knows he's floating on the Mississippi in a life raft all bound up. I guess
the robbers didn't want to add murder on their criminal resume.
In any event he drifts into a swamp settlement that's fairly isolated and run by
Edgar Buchanan playing one of his rapscallion parts. They like him well enough
but don't want him to leave or they'll kill him. They're afraid he'll tell of the
place and how these swamp dwellers survive. Though for most of the story
Garner can't see what these folks are so afraid of being discovered.
He's also got a pair of Buchanan's daughters showing interest in him, Arlene
Howell and Erin O'Brien. And they've got jealous boyfriends.
In the end the secret is really no secret and the whole basis of their fears is non-existent and sublimely ridiculous. Once again the Maverick gift of gab
saves the situation.