A 17th-century Caribbean port rumored to have frequented by pirates rises from the ocean floor, where it came to rest after an earthquake many years before. A scientist wants to study it, some thugs want the treasure alleged to be stored there, a bunch of mutated giant crabs living there attack them all.

A drifter riding the rails gets mistaken for the new sheriff of a small town. He takes the police job and is immediately pressured to crack down on local organized crime.

In 1957, director Harold Daniels was hired by producer Michael A. Ripps to oversee BAYOU, a cheaply made, overly melodramatic tale of swamp life. The low budget film starred a pre-MISSION IMPOSSIBLE Peter Graves, Corman regular Jonathan Haze, and the effortlessly bizarre Timothy Carey. But despite this eclectic cast, BAYOU was a major flop at the box office. So Ripps recut the film, adding an off-camera rape scene and a new, bloody conclusion to its climatic fight. Of even greater importance was Ripp's new title: POOR WHITE TRASH.

An insurance agent's greedy girlfriend with a taste for mink leads him to a life of crime.