In 1935, 99-year-old former slave Shadrach asks to be buried on the soil where he was born to slavery, and that land is owned by the large Dabney family, consisting of Vernon, Trixie and their seven children, and to bury a black man on that land is a violation of strict Virginia law.

Grace Bichon, who is managing her father's riding-stable, discovers that her husband Eddie deceives her with another woman. After confronting him in the middle of the night on the streets of their small home town, she decides to stay at her sister Emma Rae's house for a while, to make up her mind. Breaking out of her everyday life, she starts to question the authority of everyone, especially her father's, thus causing a stir in her parent's marriage, too.

In this tale of sex, violence, race, and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, "Cadillac Records" follows the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.