Ted Masters, a burnt-out tap-dance and guitarist, leaves the Black Theater Circuit in the South in 1939 and moves to Los Angeles, where he is immersed in the racist atmosphere of the times. He teams up with Hattie McDaniel, Rex Ingram, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson , Stepin' Fetchit and B-movie wizard Nat Levine to create the First Black Cowboy Movie Star. An ex-lover shows up and things fall asunder.