Based on the real madam-Prostitute Ollie Pope has been through the wringer-surviving the poorhouse, the jailhouse, and the workhouse, not to mention giving up her beloved illegitimate child. Wounded and hardened, she wants money and the social acceptance she thinks it will bring. And for a time it does. With the help of cotton broker and former lover "Toodles" Woodall, bootlegging provides short-term success; yet the end of Prohibition leaves her little choice but to return to what she knows. Ollie's clean and stylish brothel becomes a legendary mecca for servicemen from nearby training bases during WWII, as well as a secret refuge for the rich and influential in town. But other groups are clamoring for it to be shut down. After so many years of struggle, will her worst fear come true: a return to poverty and shame? Set amidst the tumult that shook the foundations of staid Southern society in the first half of the twentieth century, Miss Ollie's story is one of corruption, racism, hypocrisy, and the appearance of kindness in unexpected places.