The story follows a young teacher (Jon Voight) in 1969 assigned to an isolated Yamacraw Island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds out that the children as well as the adults have been isolated from the rest of the world and speak a dialect called Gullah and "Conrack" is their way of saying his name "Conroy." The school is a two room school with the Principal (Madge Sinclair) teaching grades one through four and Conrack teaching the higher grades. He discovers that they know very little. He tries to teach them about the outside world and comes in conflict both with the principal and Mr. Skeffington (Hume Cronyn), the superintendent. This comes to a head when he takes them to Beaufort on the mainland to go trick or treating, which the superintendent has forbidden. He also must overcome parental fears of "the river." As a result, he's fired. As he leaves the island for the last time, the children come out to see him leave, bringing along a record player on which they play the beginning movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as he leaves.