As the civil rights movement gains momentum throughout the South, Alabama sorority sister Maggie DeLoach (Ally Sheedy) is popular, attractive and engaged to Boots Claibourne (Don Michael Paul), whose father owns one of the area's largest plantations. But Maggie feels there's more to life than marrying a rich husband -- a fact her best friend, Delia (Virginia Madsen), doesn't grasp. When Maggie meets charming, socially concerned photographer Hoyt Cunningham (Treat Williams), everything changes.