Early in the twentieth century, in the Georgia countryside, Celie, a poor Black girl abused by the man who raised her, pours out her life in letters to God. Married off to a widower she calls only Mister and parted from her sister Nettie, the one person she loves, she endures cruelty until the blues singer Shug Avery, Mister's mistress, comes into the house and helps her find her own voice.