En route to a job, New York-based model Marsha Mitchell decides to stop for under 24 hours in the southern American town of Rock Point to visit her sister Lucy Rice, whom she has not seen in two years, and meet Lucy's husband Hank Rice for the first time. Upon arriving in Rock Point, Marsha witnesses a Ku Klux Klan slaying: she later learns that the victim was Walter Adams, an out-of-town reporter who was to write an exposé on the Klan. Marsha even saw two of the men's faces after they removed their hoods, but they didn't see her. Upon later arriving at Lucy's house, Marsha is shocked to see that Hank was one of the Klansmen who committed the murder; Lucy was unaware that he was a Klansman. Marsha decides to confront Hank and Lucy about what she saw. Meanwhile, county prosecutor Burt Rainey knows that the Klan committed the murder, everyone in town is aware that the Klan committed the murder, but Rainey knows that no one will come forward to implicate the Klan for what they see as the good of the town. He is also aware that Marsha would have been in the area when the murder was committed and wants to talk to her; he hopes that her outsider status would let her speak freely if she had indeed seen something. Marsha must decide what to say to Rainey, specifically taking into account how best to protect her and Lucy's welfare, which includes the fact that Lucy is pregnant.—Huggo