Overview

The early life cycle of a girl growing up with her sister and her mother in a lower class black neighborhood, with scenes switching back and forth in time to show her both as she is now and as she was when a little girl. Her mother was an evangelist, and her father a very likeable but contentious alcoholic. Her sister became a whore early in life. One night after the father has left the family, mother plans a pilgrimage to another town; and so this is the night that sister decides to bring home a white man and initiate the younger girl in the rites of sex. Sensing trouble, however, mother returns unexpectedly and discovers all. Ever since that night, sister has disappeared, and the girl has gone searching for her everywhere, ending up a prostitute herself. Her one remaining hope is her lover, who has made her pregnant.