Marian Elliott Adams, an outspoken advocate for sensible undergarments for women, sweeps onto the Chautauqua stage under a brown canvas tent on a sweltering August night in 1917. The crowd is further appalled when Marian falls off the stage and sprains her ankle, and is forced to remain there for a week. As the week passes, she throws into turmoil the town's unspoken rules governing social order, women and Negroes. Marian's arrival shatters the town's notions of what is acceptable, particularly those of Deuce Garland, who she pushes to be greater than he imagined possible.