Ted Gregory is trying to be the first black producer to mount a show on Broadway, but he has trouble with his star singer.

After graduating from Harvard University, Peter Siner returns to his small Tennessee hometown, where he hopes to start a school for black children.

Naomi, a light-skinned Black child, is abandoned by her mother and raised by the virtuous Mrs. Saunders. When the girl's fixation with whiteness turns her against her own race, she is sent to a convent. Hopelessly in love with her adoptive brother Jimmie, Naomi consents to marry his friend, but is repulsed by his darker skin and unrefined ways.

A confident and unscrupulous minister begins a 'back to Africa' movement, proclaiming himself Emperor of the United States of Africa.