After 20 years of praying for his daughter to let him back into her life, a 65-year-old Ty gets his wish when the prodigal requests his help in dealing with a financial bind and her rebellious teenage son. Ty's first encounter with his grandson, whom the grandfather has never met, leads to a challenge for a two mile race that alters the course of life of the young man as well as the grandfather.
Savannah is the true story of Ward Allen, a romantic and bombastic character who rejects his plantation heritage for the freedom of life on a river. Ward navigates the change of early 20th century America on the wrong side of the law and society, his long-time friend, a freed slave named Christmas Moultrie, at his side. Master of Shakespeare, and the shotgun that provides Savannah's markets with fowl, Ward fights for his rights as a hunter. His charisma and eloquent rhetoric win the heart of a society woman who defies her father to marry him. An elderly Moultrie tells the story of life on the river with his friend to a little boy, who passes the legendary Ward Allen down to the next generation.