In all of her 19 years, Sweet Alice Nelson had never been happy in southwest Mississippi. White people treated her awfully, and there was nothing she could do about it. She had dreamed of getting away, but there was no money for that or anything else. On the last day of August in 1959, however, a strange event occurred, and Sweet Alice's life took a turn she didn't expect. A young teacher named Jimmy Burletson had her to help him do something she never believed any white man would do. Then, as if she didn't have enough new things to deal with, Jimmy's best friend Jay Stevens started coming around. Before she knew it, she was having thoughts that she knew she wasn't supposed to have.
