When a white man loses his job after the pandemic, he moves in and renovates a plantation passed down by his family with dollar signs in his eyes, but his conscientious son finds an enslaved boy's journal that unleashes a reckoning.

SYNOPSIS:

This script has been recommended by Indie Film Hustle.

When a white man, Roger, loses his job after the pandemic, he hesitantly moves into a plantation passed down by his family; the deed is transferred over with the help of Roger's childhood friend, Jerry, who's African-American.

Roger's son, Andrew, finds an enslaved boy's journal. It tells the story of an enslaved family whose master's wife claims she was raped by the father of the author of the journal. His father is hanged, and his mother stabs him and his sister and slashes her throat. Their ghosts linger on the property, with the enslaved boy, Meriday, leading their bid to find eternal freedom when he makes contact with a living boy near his age.

These two worlds, the antebellum and the 21st century, are on a collision course as the former infects the latter, with the parents, Roger and Priscilla, taking the brunt of it as their son, Andrew, allies with his crypto currency-obsessed big sister, Susie, to escape the curse of an older generation.

The enslaved boy's journal sheds light on his family's history and provides clues that help Andew and Susie understand the truth behind their own family line: in fact, Roger's descended from the enslaved man who was not the perpetrator but the victim of rape by his white owner's wife described by Meriday in his journal.

The final insult comes when Roger and family charge admission for entry to the plantation and mansion, where visitors are regaled with stories based on the legend of Meriday and his family. Jerry can't believe this is his childhood friend who hasn't acted like himself since he seems to be suffering from some kind of virus that took hold once he moved here.

This virus also has infected Andrew's mother. She kills a representative of the NAACP, sent by Jerry, who confronts Roger with how he's been profiting off slavery and sets the climax in motion.

This allows the set piece for the movie, the lynching tree from the antebellum era, to come to life and lash out with savage retribution after Andrew reads the curse in Meriday's journal. The tree consumes Roger and Priscilla, and the mansion collapses into a sinkhole which allows the souls of the Meriday family to float away free. Meanwhile, Andrew and Susie are left, and Jerry offers to adopt them.

STRANGE FRUIT