Drama starring Sammy Davis Jr. as professional jazz trumpeter Adam Johnson, whose self destructive habits spiral out of control following the death of his family in a car accident. Meanwhile, he is also experiencing the racial prejudices latent in the music industry, and these issues are brought to the fore when he meets respected older jazz musician Willie Ferguson (Louis Armstrong) and his beautiful civil rights activist grand-daughter Claudia (Cicely Tyson).

Interracial strife hits Atoka County, Alabama in Director Terence Young's tense thriller. When local white woman Nancy Poteet (Linda Evans) is raped one night, apparently by a black man, the subsequent murder of a black teenager threatens to undermine the fragile balancing act of local County Sheriff 'Big Track' Bascomb (Lee Marvin). Undermined by his Klan-supporting deputy (Cameron Mitchell) and local employer/Mayor, Hardy Riddle (David Huddlestone), Bascomb tries to keep the lid on the powder-keg of a potential race-war.