District Attorney Willie Mitchell Banks is the last elected white politician in Yaloquena County, the heart of the Mississippi Delta. On the down slope of life in the town of Sunshine, Willie Mitchell is estranged from his wife and two sons, and disappointed in his career. The Delta has changed on his watch-white people still own the land and have the money, but African-Americans have almost total political power. Black Sheriff Lee Jones convinces his political ally, Willie Mitchell, to prosecute young black mother Takisha Berry for theft. Takisha's cause is taken up by an up-and-coming black preacher, who accuses the D.A. of racism and organizes a boycott against the local grocery store owned by a wealthy white farmer with close ties to the D.A. The preacher's protest march on the courthouse gets out of hand, and rioters torch the wealthy farmer's mansion in the middle of Sunshine. The arrest and prosecution of the riot leader cascades into explosive unintended consequences for the D.A., including allegations of a forbidden romance and the D.A.'s family's involvement in the town's tortured racial history. Willie Mitchell forges ahead with the prosecution in the face of attacks on his integrity and allegations of personal involvement in the case. Secret testimony is leaked relating to the unsolved death of a six-year-old black girl years earlier, and leads to a shocking and deadly conclusion in the racial cauldron that is Sunshine, Mississippi.