Taking a final visit to the ghost town where his mother Ruth's Whistle Stop Cafe made its famous fried green tomatoes, Bud Threadgoode discovers new friends and surprises about the community's women while triggering unexpected changes in his daughter's ives.

Death-camp survivor Buck is 87, abrasive, and has trouble remembering. But his cop's watchfulness is intact, and he keeps his .375 Magnum close by. When he learns that the sadistic guard who brutalized him is likely still alive and the possessor of much stolen Nazi gold, Buck and his chatterbox grandson go on a quest. But who are these people who suddenly come out of the woodwork-- a loan shark, a scholar, a pretty Israeli soldier? And why does everyone...