North Carolina, 1860s: Ten years ago, John Walden, of mixed racial ancestry and light-skinned, left his home and family to forge a new life for himself as a white lawyer in Clarence, South Carolina. Now the widowed John returns, asking his sister Rena to join him and help to care for his baby son. Rena, also able to pass as white, seizes this opportunity with alacrity. But both Waldens know that the truth of their bloodline can never be revealed. And when Rena begins to fall in love with George Tryon, she finds herself burdened by the family secret...