| Plot: | Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.
In 1947 at Coney Island, down-on-her-luck actress Lora Meredith and her young daughter Susie meet coloured Annie Johnson and her daughter Sarah Jane. Annie is desperate for a place to live and offers to work as Lora's maid for food and lodging. Lora's luck begins to change as a result of their meeting and their two stories unfold across the years. However, Annie's problems start when Sarah Jane tries to pass as white.
When they first meet, Lora Meredith and Annie Johnson have a good deal in common. They are both single mothers struggling to make a life for themselves and their daughters, Susie and Sarah Jane. Lora is an aspiring model and actress who needs someone to look after Susie when she goes out on photo shoots or casting calls. Annie is an African-American who desperately wants to healthy home environment in which to raise her daughter. As Lora's career blossoms, she spends less and less time with Susie. While Annie is devoted to her daughter and would do anything for her, the fair-skinned Sara Jane is resentful of the racial bias around her and does everything to hide her origins.
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