Out of Ashes

It is 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama. 


During this racially charged atmosphere in "the most segregated city in the United States," Peg James, a young black woman from Ohio, relocates to Birmingham when her employer, Dr. Carson, a prominent surgeon and his wife buy a stately home there in an elite, segregated neighborhood.. Peg is repsponsible for the family's move from Ohio, to Alabama,, supervises the household and grounds staff. 


Dr. Carson, who was given up for adoption when his parents had a second child toward the end of the Depression and knew they could not provide for two children, purchased a home next door to a man he believes is his biological brother, Ken Stevens, a Birmingham District Attorney and unknown to Dr. Carson,Imperial Wizard for the Ku Klux Klan. 


Despite being repeatedly raped by Ken, Peg becomes entangled in an emotional battle when she finds herself drawn to a man she is forbidden to love. Tending to a garden where she uses ashes to grow an array of beautiful flowers, Peg enlists the help of a precocious young black girl and the ailing son of her employer's brother who does not know they are related. 


Peg's clandestine sexual encounters that she is forced to continue by threats of violence against herself and her "family" is like her beautiful garden, only showing the beauty on the surface, but not the ashes underneath. Her secret can never be revealed because the lives of the people she loves, incluidng the young Klan member who falls in love with her, are at stake..