Logline:

In 2001 a horrific flood hits a rural town in Florida, enabling two dogs to dig up human remains in the back yard of an elderly black woman.   To fight off the old prejudices ignited in the community, the other woman, agrees to serve as newly appointed public defender, must come to the rescue and find a way to prove her innocence.  

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Synopsis:

The year is 2001, and flood waters and dogs have dug up human remains in the back yard of an elderly black lady, Sarah Sims.  Sarah is a local highly respected matriarch to the black community and is becoming  the primary suspect.  The community is divided and old habits are arising.     The victim remains are said to be those of a prominent businessman with some unusual German the pre-WW2 links and activity.

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Admitting that she did in fact shoot the man in self-defense moves Sarah to step forward and tell Sheriff Malcolm her story. The Sheriff buys into the self-defense and believes her story will result in a no-bill result from the grand jury.  But when two dogs dig up something else, which proves that victim was not killed by gun shot, but rather blows to the head, Sarah is charged and must go to trial for murder.  

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The story bounces back and forth into two time periods, one of  current Walton County 2001  and the other of pre-WW2 1941 Walton County.  Both eras are complicated, with components of strong Jim Crow components.   And with many extreme characters, the story becomes more emotional, and complicated as the locals break out into groups of who "their people are” and “what church do you go to”. 

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A black Reverend, Sam Williams. a man with broad community acceptance and  long time knowledge of Sarah becomes most proactive in Sarah’s defense.  Eventually, he and Sheriff Malcolm connect, and both work to recruit Kathy Robinson, a public defender, to take on the job as Sarah’s defense lawyer

 

Kathy, and her husband, Bill, are realtively newcomers to Walton County.  Also, many locals dislike the fact that being a woman, Kathy is out of her place.  However, their son, Tim, is becoming intertwined with old local prejudicial ways of  race.  In short, like most of rural communities in America today, the word, ‘change’, is not always embraced.

Sheriff Malcolm is a nuance man of integrity.  He does not come from  the local upper crust and his ‘street savvy’ resulted in his narrowly winning the last Sheriff election.  Also, he learns about one old timer that might be able to help with the  ‘down and dirty’ local insights. 

 

Sheriff Malcolm chases the truth, with the facts, beginning with the murder victim, Klaus Heidleman, was a German loyalist, who had Natzi ties.  Yet, the Sheriff  centers his investigation around the human remains and the site where they were found.  He follows the physical evidence, and he follows where it leads.  In short, Sheriff Malcolm, slowly begins to connect the dots.  Those dots include many extreme rural characters.  He brings back to the court one very surprising witness with answers that result in a surprising and unpopluar outcome.