Ray Kinsella, a novice corn farmer, lives with his wife, Annie, and daughter, Karin on their Iowa farm. In the opening narration, he discusses his troubled relationship with his late father, John Kinsella, a devoted baseball fan. While walking through his cornfield one evening, he hears a voice whispering, "If you build it, he will come." Ray also sees a vision of a baseball diamond in his field. Annie is skeptical, but agrees to him plowing part of the corn under to build a baseball field, despite the financial repercussions it will cause. As he builds, he tells Karin about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Months pass and one night a uniformed man appears on the field who Ray recognizes as Shoeless Joe Jackson, a deceased baseball player his father idolized. Thrilled to play baseball again, Joe asks if others can play there and later returns with the seven additional players who were banned in the 1919 scandal.