In the aftermath of the terrible Civil War which has devastated the South, Amanda America Dixon 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 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. 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.

Sam Waterston
as David Dickson

Jennifer Beals
as Amanda Dickson

LisaGay Hamilton
as Julia

Tim Daly
as Charles Dubose

Shirley Douglas
as Elizabeth Dickson

Sean McCann
as Rutherford

Ron White
as Henry Dickson

Colin Fox
as Doctor Lovick

Adrian Hough
as Lt. Brooks

Alison Sealy-Smith
as Ruth