Caleb and Annie are two young children who have had no mother for several years. Then one day, Sarah, a lady from Maine, answers an advertisement their father, Jacob, put in a newspaper, giving new hope to the family of three. Will she be the one to fill the emptiness in their hearts and the silence in their home, at last?
Some adjustments will have to be made first. Sarah has to get used to living away from the ocean that she has known and loved all her life. Jacob has to get used to having a headstrong wife who is just as good at carpentry as he is. The children have to get used to a new and unorthodox mother. Yet their hope that everything will work out always shines through.
"Sarah, Plain and Tall" is a story about people learning to live together and become a family simply because they've grown to love each other. It is also about seeing both new things with old eyes and old things with new eyes.

在五十年代中期的美国阿拉巴马州，黑人罗莎派克丝因为拒绝乘坐在公共巴士上的黑人区，引发了反种族歧视的抗议行动，马丁路德．金发动当地黑人拒坐巴士入城。胡比．戈德堡饰演西塞．斯派西克家里的女佣，她为了支持抗议行动而宁顾每天步行九公里上班。白种女主人发现此事后，企图影响她的商人老公采取行动改善黑白隔离的现状，但没有得到善意的回应，于是主动开车接送参加示威的黑人妇女。
导演理查德．皮尔斯费力地经营出南方城镇的时代气氛，藉以加强这段历史的真实感，加上两位女主角旗鼓相当的表演，使这部剧情比较平淡的影片依旧具有不错的观赏性。