1947, Georgia. Bayou, a precocious teen with big dreams of escaping the oppressive South, hopes the music running through his blood can save him from him his daunting circumstances. First, he'll have to survive the rage of his alcoholic father, Buster, and the searing criticism of his jealous brother, Willie Earl. Despite these challenges, there lurks a golden voice behind Bayou's bashful demeanor, ready to escape. Leanne, a clever, pretty girl who Bayou grew up with, left last summer a child and returned a woman now desired by every man in town. Troubled by their lives at home, Bayou and Leanne are drawn together, meeting in secret in the sweltering, star-filled Georgia nights. They see something in each other that no one else in their small town can, and they protect each other, until the cruel racism of the South forces Bayou and Leanne to separate and flee the place they call home.

What follows is the extraordinary story of two lovers fated to be together but compelled to take different paths. Bayou journeys to Chicago where he follows his dreams of becoming a musician, his love for Leanne never far from his mind. Leanne is caught between the white and black worlds in Boston and eventually marries a white man and passes as a white woman in order to survive. When Bayou and Leanne return to Georgia and reunite, changed to the core by their experiences, they must decide if they can ever be together again and discover if that's even possible in a society bent on keeping them apart.