Rosa Lynn Sinclair, an elderly woman, lives in a Chicago housing project with her daughter Loretta and her two grandchildren, four-year-old Tracy (who is autistic) and thirteen year-old Thomas.

Disappointed in Loretta's life choices and afraid of the troubled circumstances surrounding her grandson Thomas, Rosa Lynn decides to send her daughter and grandchildren to visit with her brother-in-law in Mississippi for the summer.

Loretta, a drug addict, declines to go, especially since her uncle Earl lives in the dry and rural part of the Mississippi Delta, and already juggles his business and a wife, Annie, who has Alzheimer's disease and is cared for by a housekeeper.

She almost single-handedly shores up this somewhat simplistic movie...[h]er instincts for drama and humor provide a welcome dose of human reality, saving a script that veers toward the sentimental.

"[6] In Variety, Joe Leydon wrote, "Throughout Down in the Delta, Angelou and Goble emphasize simple truths and intelligent optimism", and that the film "places great stock in the strength of family ties and the soul-enhancing value of returning to roots" without crossing into melodrama.