Annie, a young black nursing student returns to her hometown to spend the summer with her brother, when she runs into James, a childhood friend and well-to-do white Army man betrothed to the daughter of a state senator. Although sparks fly between the two, such a union could never be due to the politics of segregation in 1957 Alabama . . . and also because he's a member of the Ku Klux Klan. After he's sucked into committing an atrocious act the FBI is called in to investigate, and James must decide between following his heart or preserving his way of life.