After refusing a demand for kinky sex from a frisky customer named Buck (Robert Englund), naive prostitute Clara Wood (Roberta Collins) is evicted from the town brothel by the Madame, Miss Hattie (Carolyn Jones). Clara makes her way to the decrepit Starlight Hotel, located deep in the remote swampland of rural Texas, where she encounters the hotel's mentally-disturbed proprietor, Judd (Neville Brand). Suffering from his own demented sexual frustrations, Judd attacks Clara with a pitchfork, then chases her outside where she is attacked and eaten by his pet Nile crocodile, who lives in the swamp beside the hotel.