The story of Sylvia Landry, a young woman of mixed race who struggles against the odds to raise money for the Negro school in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she is a teacher. Travelling north to Boston she meets a wealthy white society matron who befriends her and eventually helps fund the school. She also meets and falls in love with a handsome black doctor who comes to her aid when her purse is snatched. In the final scenes Sylvia, in a nightmarish flashback, recalls her attempted rape by a white plantation owner and the brutal lynching and burning of her parents.