Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, an African American youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.
Two black girls living in the North are proud of their family's beautiful new Cadillac until they take it on a visit to the South and encounter racial prejudice for the first time.
Young Cassie Logan endures humiliation and witnesses the racism of the KKK as they embark on a cross-burning rampage, before she fully understands the importance her family attributes to having land of their own.