Around the turn of the twentieth century and after having achieved financial success in New York, Colonel French returns to his hometown of Clarendon, NC, determined to use his great wealth to bring about racial harmony through economic prosperity, in a south still reeling from the social upheaval of the Civil War. He devises schemes to bring jobs to all members of the community - without regard to "race" - but underestimates the power of deep-seated racism to undermine his efforts. He fails horribly and loses his most cherished loved ones in the process, perhaps because he himself could not fully dispel his own Southern values.