Daughters of the Dust transports the viewer to Ibo Landing, a small Gullah community on an island off the coast of Georgia. The inhabitants of the island have created their own entirely singular culture, away from white society in America, and broadly influenced by African traditions brought over during the days of slavery. The film begins with two granddaughters of Nana Peazant, the matriarch of the Peazant clan, returning to the island, just before the community is set to the leave the island and migrate to the North for a new life.
The two granddaughters are Yellow Mary, a rebellious young woman who left the island years ago, ruining her reputation, and is now returning with her beautiful lover, Trula. Also returning is Viola Peazant, a granddaughter who has settled in Philadelphia and converted to Christianity. Viola is accompanied by Snead, a photographer, who plans to take pictures of the Peazant clan before they move North and leave behind the old ways of Ibo Landing. Mary plans to move to Nova Scotia after the family makes the move North.
On the island, we meet Nana Peazant, an ancient great grandmother and keeper of all the tradition of the Peazant family. Nana practices African and Caribbean rituals meant to commune with the past and the future. We also meet Eula and Eli. Eli is Nana's grandson, and he is upset because Eula was recently raped on the mainland and is pregnant with a child.
Throughout, the film takes a non-linear and circular approach to narrative. This is represented primarily by the fact that the narrator is Eula's Unborn Child, who has yet to be born. She and Nana are aligned in the narrative, as the oldest and youngest members of the clan.
Other members of the Peazant family have struggles as well. Haagar, one of the cousins, gets into conflict with Nana because she sees Nana's magical thinking and superstitious beliefs as backwards, and she rails against the old woman's ways. Haagar's daughter, Iona, is in love with a Native American on the island, St. Julien Last Child, whom she chooses to stay with instead of migrating North.
All of the action of the film takes place on the day leading up to the final dinner on Ibo Landing, a dinner consisting of shellfish and gumbo. Viola teaches some of the children about Christianity, Mary shares some wisdom with Eula, and Eula and Eli reflect on the mass suicide of slaves at Ibo Landing. Nana and Haagar fight about Nana's rituals, but Eula comes to Nana's defense, suggesting that the only way that the Peazant clan can overcome the shared trauma of slavery is by loving one another and accepting one another's differences.
At the end of the film, most of the Peazants leave the island. Mary, Eula, and Eli stay behind with Nana, and the Unborn Child is born and raised on the island.
