In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon (Jennifer Beals) returns home to find she has become the sole heir to a vast cotton plantation. But the dreadful secret which has blighted her life threatens to deprive her of the birthright which her beloved father David (Sam Waterston) had struggled for so long to create. Raised by her father and grandmother to be the perfect white Southern Belle, Amanda's true mother was a black slave Julia (Lisa Gay Hamilton). Confronted with the forces of greed and bigotry, Amanda has to face not only the hatred of a racist world, but the complex truth of a family whose lives have been built on a lie. Written by jbjb

Although it was only William Wyler's third all talking film, Walter Huston had already appeared in two talking short subjects and 10 talking feature films.

Bette Davis was screen tested for this film.

Radical racial separatist groups, both black and white -- including the KKK, White Aryan Resistance, the Pan African Inter-Nationalist (PAIN) movement -- are explored in this disturbing look at the extremes of racialist thought. The film climaxes with a joint rally in favor of racial separation staged by the Klan and members of PAIN on the site of the first slave market in the United States in the town square of St. Augustine, Florida. Written by Anonymous

Gerald Hutton and his lovely wife Diana grow suspicious of one another through (false) circumstantial evidence. At a lawyer's suggestion "they agree to live separately together." Very soon, both regret agreeing not to speak to one another. Written by Rod Crawford