The film begins in the early 1900s in Georgia, South America. A teenage Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) lives with her younger sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) and their father Alfonso (Deon Cole) who runs the local store. Celie gives birth to a daughter, fathered by Alfonso, and he takes the child away as he had done with her first-born. Despite this heartbreaking turn of events, Celie and Nettie are seen to be ‘traditional’ carefree sisters, happy in each other’s company, until one day, Albert “Mister” Johnson rides into town. Celie is very taken with him, but the more learned Nettie warns her that he is The Devil. Mister approaches Alfonso for Nettie’s hand but he is instead given Celie as a wife and mother to his three young and wayward children. Theirs is not a happy union, but this is not a particularly happy film, littered as it is with abuse, sexual violence and domestic abuse. Nettie comes to stay but after Mister attempts to rape her and she rebuffs him, she is thrown out into the rainy night with a threat that if she ever comes back, he will kill both her and her sister. After committing to writing to each other, Nettie runs away, but Mister refuses to allow Celie to empty the mailbox so Nettie’s letters never arrive.