Walt Andrews (Hudson) has been hired sight unseen to be the new minister in a small Vermont community in the '50s. The unseen part is a problem since the townspeople are shocked when Walt turns out to be black. Then Walt gets arrested for the murder of a young housekeeper, Claire (Bayne), whom he was sheltering from her abusive employer and the town seems determined to make him the scapegoat. Based on a Howard Frank Mosher novel.