Robert Owens is a young commodity trader on Wall Street in 1855. Hoping to study the methods by which the cotton he makes his living from is produced, he accepts an invitation from his old classmate at Princeton University, Bill Jackson, to visit his cotton plantation in South Carolina. Once there, the innocent Robert finds he enjoys watching female servants whipped. He also discovers that he enjoys participating in the games his friend Bill likes to play with the young women on the plantation. But can Robert break the will of a stubborn young woman from a nearby plantation and make her submit to his desires?