Annie Ruth Watson is the daughter of Big Sid Watson, the biggest, blackest farmer in Tobacco County, Georgia. The year is 1960 and her senior year of high school lies ahead. After that ... who knows? In Alabama, a young black preacher named King has been giving hope to unvoiced dreams, and Annie Ruth’s parents are determined to send her to college. But first Annie Ruth must finish high school, hold the attention of her boyfriend while, as her mother warns her, “keeping her dresstail down,” and weather the snobbery of the town Negroes toward their country cousins. When her boyfriend sneaks behind her back with a white girl and is shot for his troubles, her world comes crashing down, and she grows from an innocent teen to a strong young woman.