A 15 year-old girl has a recurring dream. She is a black girl in Mississippi and in the dream she is marching, adorn in wedding white, down the center aisle of the biggest Catholic church of Muddy Water, to become joined, in the eyes of God, to the man of her dreams. This is the story of Loretta Payne and a romantic odyssey that stands black culture on its head. Loretta dreams but prays, too. And beyond her dream, she insists that the people around her do the right thing. There is a childhood boyfriend who has to learn that there is more to life than skirt-chasing and hustling. There are her working-class parents who have to accept that if you send a black girl to a white parochial school she may emerge inclined toward another religion. And there is a daughter who learns that the road to respect does not pass through insolence and low-grade lust. Writer Miller Taylor weaves a rich story of love, faith and redemption told through the life of a woman whose integrity can't be eaten away even by cancer.