1933, America's Deep South. Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), her father and his gang of henchman have left Dogville in search of somewhere new. In the state of Alabama a chance encounter with a young black girl leads them to Manderlay - a plantation frozen in time where, behind locked gates, life in the cotton fields goes on as if slavery has never been abolished.

For Grace the injustice is too much to bear and when her father decides to move on she stays behind determined to fight for the freedom of Manderlay slaves... whether they want it or not.