Innocent and free-spirted 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 intelligent and outspoken black man who opens her up to ideals and views denied by her sheltered unbringing. But when the nature of her relationship is exposed to her intolerant, antimiscegenist family, tensions begin to bring out the worst worst in everyone exacerbating their differences is Payton's older brother , Ricky, a manipulative and tortured racist who pretends to be a friend and confident to Curtis Payton and Curtis bravely pursue their love unaware of what it will ultimately Cost