In the deep South of the 1960s a young white girl"s growing sense of right and wrong alienates her from her conservative father. Something is awry in Teddy"s small Mississippi town. Everywhere she goes, people are talking about an uproar. Then one night Teddy witnesses a cross burning from her attic window. Soon after, she starts hearing about a group called the Ku Klux Klan. Along with her best friend, a black girl named Stella, Teddy embraces the civil rights movement in direct opposition to her staunchly conservative father. Over a period of several years, Teddy"s family is undermined by the insidious effects of racism as her father struggles to maintain the status quo, her mother begins to speak out, and Teddy grapples with irreconcilable truths.