Based on the protagonist's real-life memoirs, frustrated newspaper reporter Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Mary Steenburgen) abandons her career and moves to a Florida bayou to concentrate on writing fiction. Here, Marjorie's life is changed by a devoted servant (Alfre Woodard) who befriends her, a local businessman (Peter Coyote) who becomes her lover and the backwoods father (Rip Torn) and his daughter (Dana Hill) who become her greatest inspiration.