Susie is found and looked after by Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore), a black single mother who also has a daughter, Sarah Jane (portrayed as a child by Karin Dicker), who is about Susie's age. Sarah Jane inherited her father's fair skin and can pass for white.
A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her. the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame.
'I asked the midwife if she was mine': Black mother gives birth to one in a million WHITE daughter with blue eyes - and reveals strangers