Motel Hell follows the exploits of Farmer Vincent Smith (Rory Calhoun), who has three basic jobs: farmer, motel owner, and purveyor of the best straight-from-the-farm smoked meat products sold in the country. He and his sister Ida (Nancy Parsons) set up road accidents to abduct injured passers-by along the two-lane highway near their motel (it's called "Motel Hello" but the last 'o' is on the blink), chloroforming them to knock them out, then planting their bodies into the ground up to their neck in their walled-off "secret garden" (with their vocal cords severed). They're kept fed until it's time to process them for their super-secret blend of pork and human flesh meat products (their coy slogan is, "It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent's fritters". Hanging around but completely oblivious is Vincent's daft younger brother Bruce (Paul Linke), who happens to be a county deputy sheriff based in the nearby town of Grainville, and who has eyes for one of the abducted young women, Terry (Nina Axelrod).