After years of low pay on farms and in drugstores, Doug follows his brothers footsteps and enters into the US Air Force. After growing higher and higher in rank, he grows tired of the Air Force and moves back home to try his luck in business. He meets Veda Sue and is forced to marry her after she becomes pregnant. Yet the marriage brings a close relationship to her uncle in government, and Doug finally finds his calling, running for judge, lieutenant governor, and hopes to keep climbing to the top. Rosetta is a fictionalized retelling of the life of Doug Lingo and his early years working out in the fields of the South.