Pinky, a young woman of mixed-race, has light enough skin to pass for being white. She falls for a white doctor while working as a nurse, but abandons the relationship and returns to live with her grandmother in the South. There, she takes care of Miss Em, a white woman who grows fond of Pinky and makes the girl her heir…

"Kazan's direction is exactly what we would expect from one of the best filmmakers in the United States: well balanced and soberly moving, it is happy to serve and do justice to a subject that really deserved it. We can never see too many films of this calibre."
Jean Nery, Le Franc-tireur, 3 juillet 1950