With his doctorate under his belt, Ted Grover is eager for adventure and a challenge in academia. A child of the sixties generation, he has visions of radically changing the world for the better. When he lands a job in a university in the Mississippi Delta he leaves his family behind in California. He is quickly mugged by reality when he realizes that here the savage ideal still thrives. He lectures his students about human liberation but they only want to know if he believes in God and whether he is a communist. The air saturated with cotton chemicals make his lungs burn. As an outsider he is just another Yankee. He sometimes fears for his life. The locals have dug in their heels to defend the southern way of life to the bitter end. He yearns for freedom from his Dixieland prison. His ultimate escape is intensely exhilarating but leads to a shocking end.