Inspired by true events, a free Black woman in antebellum New Orleans must summon all her strength when the city’s most infamous slave owner traps her in a house of horrors.

SYNOPSIS:

We’ve all heard the story of Madame Lalaurie. One of America’s most infamous slave owners. Torture, starvation, mutilation—her favorite pastimes—when she wasn’t charming New Orleans’ high society. Her unlucky slaves bore the brunt of her cruel force. But her rise and reign is not the narrative we tell. Our story is of the one who ended it all; the young slave woman who started the fire that rang the alarm and opened the eyes of a burgeoning new city to the depravity in their midst. The fire that put an end to the horrors on Royal Street. This film is Ellie’s Tale.

The daughter of a white planter and a slave, ELLIE lives a life of moderate luxury--not unlike the other gens du color—the elite class of mixed-race creole women in New Orleans at that time. She lives in a home in the creole neighborhood of Marigny with her newly freed grandmother EMMA whom she adores above all else—even when she consistently reminds her that she’s no different than the enslaved people around her. Ellie’s nice life comes at a price, however, and the fee is paid in body to wealthy planter, CHRISTOPHE—business partner to Ellie’s late father and her current caretaker courtesy of her father’s last request.

As a means of survival in antebellum New Orleans, Ellie obliges Christophe’s many requests but in doing so, attracts the ire of Christophe’s jealous wife, MARIE. Christophe is looking to expand his holdings in the city and Marie’s brother, BERTRAND, has the capital he needs to push forward. Seeing an opportunity for leverage, Marie asks her brother not to do business with her husband unless he acquiesces to the one request he has never been willing to grant—get rid of Ellie. Christophe refuses to outright get rid of what he sees as his most prized consort. He instead agrees to send her away for 30 days—enough time to get the deal with Bertrand and to lessen Marie’s worry. Understanding Christophe’s motives, Marie agrees only on the terms that he sends Ellie to her sister—MADAME DELPHINE LALAURIE.

Tricked and threatened into agreeing to stay at the LaLaurie mansion as a freed helper, Ellie soon finds herself in a horrifying situation. Living under the illusion of personal autonomy, Ellie doesn’t want to be treated like the enslaved workers, but a series of events force her to re-evaluate her place in the world and the horrors she begins to see lead her to find comfort in her current peers. She befriends ANNA and NELSON, both enslaved workers at the Lalaurie mansion who quickly show her the ins and out of surviving in that home and become her closest confidantes. Nelson, especially, seeks to protect her most of all. They become her saving grace for the time she has agreed to serve.

When Anna is taken, and Emma lands in a perilous situation, Ellie is forced to act swiftly to free herself and her peers from a horrible situation. With Nelson’s help, she uncovers a room of horrors that sends her running for the nearest exit. The only thing is that leaving the Lalaurie mansion isn’t as easy as walking out of the front door.