When Nate Lancaster, a white man, is released on bail after running over a little black girl named Presley and leaving her in a coma, the small town of Thompsonville, Mississippi erupts with chaos, exposing racial tension from the past. Despite the protests of his old college buddy Klein, a black man who now works for the mayor, Anderson Abraham, a white reporter from Boston, comes to town to do a story on the incident in order to help Presley get justice. Unfortunately, her mother, Channing, refuses to let her daughter's case become a publicity stunt. As they get to know each other, Anderson opens Channing's eyes to the bigger picture, and she realizes how much he cares for Presley. Channing and Anderson fall in love but a vengeful racist, a mayor with a political agenda, and a black activist hungry for fame threatens Channing and Anderson's relationship as well as the future of Thompsonville.