David Wilson is a young lawyer, a silent observer that arrives to a conservative, anti-abolitionist town in the South of the United States. Everybody believes his to be dimwitted because nobody understands David's ingenious and ironic remarks. The poor fellow is reduced to the offensive nickname of Pudd'n'head. The story then turns its attention to the exchange of children in their cradles, one of them white and the other a slave, although he looks white. Each one grows with the other's destiny. However a crime makes Pudd'n'head uncover the truth thanks to his wits and his much-mocked habit of taking fingerprints. Pudd'n'head Wilson is an agile tale full of suspense, emotion and much humor.