In a small southern town the murder of a young black boy echoes heavily with Runna, a traumatized black male seeking refuge in communicating with his murdered friend through a single, vibrant patch of sugarcane.  Though mute to the external world, Runna is able to embrace his superpower of love and mediumship, but his type of love is not well received by his Great Aunt Nanny Mae and the brazen Pastor Vern-Mayor who work to baptize it out of him.  It is only through a passing stranger; Incwadi, that demons of homophobia and the past are confronted as the vast field of sugarcane dies and their lives are forever transformed.