The 911 call was unlike anything ever heard in Maiden, N.C., or probably anywhere else.

A man who had bought a barbecue smoker at a storage unit auction popped it open at home, only to discover, resting on the grill, the remains of a gnarled human leg. Tendons, toenails and all.

“It’s plum nasty!” the buyer, Shannon A. Whisnant, said in a recording of the call. “Done grossed me out.”

This would be the last time that Mr. Whisnant ever considered parting with his leg. Well, it wasn’t his leg, exactly, as he learned when his report made the local news and an amputee, John Wood, came forward to claim his former limb. Turns out, he’d just misplaced it. But Mr. Whisnant, a professed entrepreneur with a flair for promotion and a thirst for the spotlight, did not want to return it to Mr. Wood. “He is its birth owner,” Mr. Whisnant said, “but I still feel I own it.” He turned the grill into a tourist attraction.

This is the stranger-than-fiction tale — like Carson McCullers come to life — chronicled in the documentary “Finders Keepers,” opening on Friday, Sept. 25. No spoilers here: Those events are just the first 10 minutes of the movie. The rest winds thoughtfully through family history, class, and the twin perils and enticements of drugs and celebrity. Mr. Whisnant and Mr. Wood’s interaction made international headlines in 2007, and the two men aired their custody battle on an episode of “Judge Mathis” that was wild even for reality TV. Mr. Wood described Mr. Whisnant as “my Antichrist.” Mr. Whisnant sometimes appeared jealous and disdainful of the foe he called “the one-legged man.” And yet, eight years in, their fortunes are inextricably linked. Mr. Whisnant claimed to be over the whole affair, but on Twitter he is still known as @FootmanNC.