Annette grew up with a mother who never showed her any real love. Her mother viewed her children as bargaining chips to her benefit. Her mother Rose always preferred to keep her polygamous husband happy at whatever cost, and then her sons. She favored her youngest daughter Emma, and Annette always got the short end of the stick. The only time Rose was barely good to Annette was when she knew it would keep her husband happy. Suddenly, Annette's father dies and her aunt sends for her entire family to move to San Francisco, California for a better opportunity and life for colored people. Rose demands that her children hate as she hates and her heart is hardened by the traumas they experience in the south. When Annette moves to California she learns that judging people before you get to know them is not the way to live. Even though Annette is accepting of people of all racial backgrounds her mother is not. Annette unknowingly catches the eye of the youngest Wallace boy Tim. Annette never entertains the idea of Tim's feelings because she thinks they come from two different worlds, besides her momma would kill her. The Wallace's are a family ahead of their time. Timothy's momma Irma comes from the South and she loves and adores the closest person she's ever had to a mother, Lady B. Irma grew up in the middle of African American culture although her biological family was of Southern wealth. Irma teaches all eight of her children to look at people for who they are and not the color of their skin. Tim has lived his entire life this way with a best friend named Jeremiah who's colored. When his brother marries his high school sweetheart Tim believes he's going to spend his adult life as a bachelor chasing skirts. Until he meets Annette who doesn't even notice him. Tim experiences prejudice from Annette's mother Rose. Tim is determined to protect Annette and show her that Love begins in your heart not through your eyes. Meanwhile the pull of his family business and life pull at him making it difficult to be as forth coming with the love of his life as he wants to be, for fear that she might run away from him.