Joe and Ella Mae Hamilton, having just moved into a new neighborhood, are confronted by an angry, jeering mob of whites outside their house. Joe thinks back on his life. According to press materials, the film's story was based on an idea "expressed by [United Steelworkers of America Union, distributor of the film] President David J. McDonald in a speech on civil rights given by him" in Los Angeles in September 1956.

Two high-school teenagers on their way to Mexico to get married cross paths with a homicidal fugitive.