"The Sound and the Fury" is based on Faulkner's Nobel Prize-winning book of the same name, which was published in 1929. Set in Jefferson, Mississippi, the novel centers around the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation.

Over the course of 30 years, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson. Many of them die tragically.