Innocent and free-spirited orphan Payton Coleman is forced to take a job in Louisville to help stave off foreclosure on her aunt's farmhouse. There she meets Curtis, an intellegent and outspoken black man who opens her up to ideas and views denied by her sheltered upbringing. But when the nature of her relationship is exposed to her intolerant, antimiscegenist family, tensions begin to bring out the worst in everyone.