drama, nostalgia, history torrent

Before the Civil War, the Dabney family of Virginia sold their slave, Shadrach (John Franklin Sawyer), to plantation owners in Alabama, separating him from his family. In 1935, during the Great Depression, Shadrach—at the age of 99—walks the 600 miles from his home in Alabama to the Dabney farm in Virginia. His one request is to be buried in the soil of the farm where he was born into slavery.

The farm is owned by the descendants of the Dabney family, consisting of Vernon (Keitel), Trixie (McDowell) and their seven children. But to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law, so the family goes through the arduous task of figuring out how to grant his request. Along the way they form a touching bond with the former slave and sharecropper, who has outlived both his former wives and some 35 children