South of Little Rock is a story of love, hate, fear, and courage as residents of a small town in southern Arkansas deal with social change in 1957. Sam Tate is a white widower who dotes on his two children and has not given much thought to how black people live. He only wants to play baseball with them. Becky Reeves is an unmarried northerner who ignores a warning from her mother and comes south to teach. Ida Belle Tate is a strong-willed woman who loves quilting and helping raise her grandchildren and dislikes blacks and Yankees. Life changes for all of them when Governor Faubus resists the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School and President Eisenhower sends troops to ensure it. While national authority clashes with states’ rights in Little Rock, an ambitious newspaper editor and others fan racial hatred in Unionville. Sam questions old ways, Ida Belle clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then stands between them.