This film adaptation of Maya Angelou's autobiography focuses on the author's extremely difficult youth. Young Maya (Constance Good) lives at her grandmother's in Arkansas. Life is hard for the little girl, but a truly dark turning point comes when she is raped by her mother's boyfriend (Paul Benjamin). After she identifies her rapist, her uncles murder him. Overwhelmed with guilt and confusion, Maya becomes mute for years, struggling all the while to come to terms with her trauma.