Two years have passed since the night Alva stormed out of Emma Lou’s apartment and returned home to find a pregnant Geraldine. Emma Lou is now in the employ of another (former) actress, a woman named Clere Sloane. Emma Lou is as much a companion as a maid to Clere and finds the work enjoyable. Clere’s husband, a white writer named Kitchen Campbell, is fascinated by Black life in Harlem and Black American intellectuals, and he takes an interest in Emma Lou. He encourages her to further pursue her education, and she finally decides to re-enter a teachers college.

Despite the enjoyability of her job and the companionship she has found in Clere and Kitchen, Emma Lou remains lonely and dissatisfied. She gives serious thought to Alva’s assertion that her experiences of colorism and prejudice are exaggerated and that in anticipating and reacting to perceived racism, she presents herself as an unsympathetic person. However, she cannot fully agree with Alva’s position because her family members and the people in her childhood community objected so strongly to her dark skin color. She knows that colorism in Black communities is both real and insidious because she has experienced it in a way that Alva has not.

In spite of his rejection and their resulting separation, Emma Lou remains in love with Alva. She seeks him out multiple times, trying to reach him both by telephone and in person, but he refuses to rekindle their relationship. When Emma Lou goes to his apartment, Geraldine answers the door. Geraldine and Alva are by no means a happy couple, however. Their baby was born with a physical disability, and neither parent wants the responsibility of raising a child. They grow angry and distrusting of each other, Alva begins drinking heavily, and they struggle financially.

Meanwhile, Emma Lou begins to attend classes at City College to prepare for taking the teachers examination. Encouraged by Kitchen Campbell to educate herself, read widely, and become a teacher, she begins to find a sense of herself. She moves into the YWCA, where she makes her first real friends in Harlem— other young women like her who are kind and educated. She becomes close with Gwendolyn Johnson, a recent Howard graduate who has moved to New York to teach. The two socialize together and begin to attend church. Through the church community, they find a literary society to join. At long last, Emma Lou has the kind of life she envisioned when she left home.

Gwendolyn was raised with an attitude about race and skin color markedly different from Emma Lou’s. Her mother “preached complete tolerance in matters of skin color” and taught Gwendolyn to treat all Black Americans equally, regardless of complexion (100). Gwendolyn goes so far as to judge Black Americans who have light skin tones, and in this regard, she and Emma Lou differ. Emma Lou has internalized the colorism of her mother and grandmother to such a great extent that she doesn’t quite agree with Gwendolyn’s skin color politics. However, she mostly refrains from argument and enjoys the company of her new friend.

The two women go on various dates, but Emma Lou compares all of the boys they meet at church to Alva and thinks that they lack his charm, charisma, and freedom of spirit. Her relationship with The Politics of Black Respectability remains fraught: She seeks out the “right sort” of people, like the young men whom she meets at church, but then finds them dull, overly focused on respectability, and too consumed by religion and family. Emma Lou does become close with one of the young men she meets at church: Benson Brown, the son of a preacher turned Pullman porter, is studying business in college and is, to Emma Lou, incredibly tedious. She finds him just as uninteresting as the rest of the respectable boys she meets in church but is drawn to him because of his light skin. She is thrilled that such a man would be attracted to her, and she enjoys walking around Harlem on his arm.

On one evening walk together, she runs into Braxton. Emma Lou enquires about Alva and finds out that he is still in the same apartment. His alcohol addiction has left him with serious health conditions, and Geraldine, not wanting to care for him or their child, left to take a job in Chicago. To Gwendolyn’s horror, Emma Lou packs her belongings, leaves the YWCA, and returns to Alva. She takes good care of Alva’s son, brings him to the doctor, gets him leg braces, and helps him to gain weight. Alva’s alcohol addiction remains the same, and Emma Lou is not happy in their relationship.

Although she has obtained a teaching position in New York, she once again feels alienated from her peers. She is sure that they judge her for the darkness of her skin, and they are not quite sure how to place her. She doesn’t socialize with anyone they know in Harlem, and she is not part of any intellectual circle. Unbeknownst to her, her colleagues talk behind her back about the makeup that she wears to lighten her skin. They write an anonymous note, saying that the creams and powders she wears to look lighter only make her look ridiculous. Mortified, Emma Lou vows to find a position at another school.

She feels humiliated at home as well. The neighbors gossip about Alva, Geraldine, and Emma Lou. Their assessment of the love triangle is characterized by vicious colorism, and hearing their insults and their assertions that Alva found a “mammy” to care for the child of his partner wounds Emma Lou. Although she loves Alva’s child, she decides to leave the pair to fend for themselves. She will move back to the YWCA, better herself in the manner suggested by Kitchen Campbell, and call Benson Brown, even though she disappeared from his life without a goodbye. Benson, however, is engaged to marry Gwendolyn, and Emma Lou’s hopes for a return to her formerly respectable life are dashed. She wanders the streets of Harlem alone, musing again about race, skin color, and her future. Realizing that she needs a good night of sleep before work the next day, she returns to Alva and the baby. She finds him drunkenly embracing a young man named Bobbie, who is described as “effeminate,” in a crowd of other drunk young men. Mortified, she finally leaves. The novel ends as she shuts the door on Alva, his baby, and her former life.