Jim's inability to find work forces Lutie to take a live-in housekeeping job with the wealthy Chandler family in Connecticut.

Lutie receives a letter from Pop revealing that Jim is having an affair with another woman.

Lutie returns to New York, finds another woman living with Jim, and moves out with Bub.

Lutie pays the deposit on a cramped apartment on 116th Street in Harlem, despite her misgivings about the super Jones.

Lutie sings along with the jukebox at the Junto bar and is approached by local bandleader Boots Smith.

Boots Smith offers Lutie an audition to sing with his band, which she sees as a potential way out of poverty.

Lutie passes her audition at the casino and is offered a spot singing with Boots' band.

Boots informs Lutie that Junto has ordered he never pay her for singing with the band.

Jones presents Bub with a plan to steal letters from neighborhood mailboxes, falsely claiming the boy would be helping catch criminals.

Jones tips off postal service investigators about Bub's mail theft, deliberately setting the boy up to be arrested.

Lutie learns from Mrs. Hedges that Bub has been arrested and taken to a children's shelter.

Lutie finds a lawyer down the street who promises to free Bub in exchange for two hundred dollars.

Lutie arrives at Boots' apartment expecting money for Bub's lawyer and discovers Junto himself is waiting there.

After Junto leaves, Boots tries to force himself on Lutie, and she beats him to death with a candlestick.

Lutie flees New York on a train to Chicago, blaming the street itself for destroying her life.

Lutie Johnson's husband Jim cannot find work, forcing her to take a live-in housekeeping job with a white family in Connecticut and leave her son behind. After learning Jim is having an affair, she returns to New York, leaves him, and rents a small apartment on 116th Street in Harlem. Hoping to improve her fortunes, she auditions for bandleader Boots Smith after they meet at a local bar, and earns a singing job at the casino. Her dreams collapse when Boots reveals that white property owner Junto has ordered that she receive no pay, ending her hopes of escaping poverty through music. Meanwhile, the building superintendent Jones manipulates Lutie's young son Bub into stealing from mailboxes, then informs on him to investigators, and Bub is arrested. In a final desperate attempt to free Bub, Lutie goes to Boots for money, is assaulted, kills him in self-defense, and flees New York on a train to Chicago.

Lutie Johnson's struggle to escape poverty and the forces that destroy her

Lutie overhears Mrs. Chandler's guests warning that keeping an attractive Black maid in the house is a dangerous temptation.

Mr. Chandler's brother shoots himself in front of the family on Christmas morning, beginning the household's disintegration.

Lutie catches Bub shining shoes on the street, slaps him, and insists he must never do work that keeps Black people in lowly positions.

Jones befriends Bub as a calculated scheme to grow closer to Lutie, despite secretly despising the child.

Jones tries to have Mrs. Hedges evicted for running a brothel, but learns she has powerful connections and his complaint is torn up.

Min sneaks into Mrs. Hedges' apartment and asks for a recommendation to a root doctor who can help her keep Jones from throwing her out.

Min visits Prophet David, who listens patiently to her troubles and gives her powders, candles, and a cross to hang in the apartment.

Jones sees the cross Min has hung in the bedroom and retreats to the living room, unsettled by the looming symbol.

Boots drives Lutie out of the city at terrifying speed and parks above the Hudson River, where he attempts to kiss her.

A white police officer pulls over Boots' car, but Boots bribes him with cash and drives away without consequence.

Jones grabs Lutie in the hallway as she returns from the casino, and Mrs. Hedges tears her away from him to safety.

After rescuing Lutie from Jones, Mrs. Hedges once again offers to set her up with a white gentleman for extra money.

Boots meets privately with Junto, who threatens to destroy Boots' career if he continues pursuing Lutie.

Jones acquires a master mailbox key from a neighboring landlord and sends Min out to have a copy made, leaving no evidence connecting him to the plan.

Min arranges for a pushcart man to collect her belongings and walks away from Jones' apartment for the last time.

While Lutie works in Connecticut, she overhears white guests casually warning Mrs. Chandler about the dangers of having an attractive Black maid, revealing the racism that underpins even polite society. Back on 116th Street, the lives of building residents Jones, Min, and Mrs. Hedges unfold through their own ambitions, fears, and schemes. Jones befriends Bub as a way to get close to Lutie, and Min secretly consults a root doctor named Prophet David to protect herself from being thrown out by Jones. Boots Smith, meanwhile, meets privately with Junto and is told to abandon his pursuit of Lutie or lose his career entirely. The web of manipulation tightens around Bub, who is caught by postal detectives in the act of stealing a letter, while Min finally gathers the courage to pack her belongings and leave Jones for good.

The hidden schemes and hidden lives of 116th Street's residents

Lutie begins to see through the illusion of the American Dream as she observes the Chandler family's dysfunction and their subtle racism toward her.

Pop's wild party at Lutie and Jim's apartment ends with a police visit that strips away what remains of Jim's pride and self-respect.

Lutie leaves Jim's home, works through night school, and secures a file clerk job so she and Bub can live independently.

Riding home after Boots' reckless night drive, Lutie decides that money is the only real power and resolves to use Boots Smith to escape the street.

Lutie discovers the morning after Jones visited that her blouse is smudged and wrinkled, and realizes the super has been inside her apartment uninvited.

Mrs. Hedges reflects on surviving a deadly fire that left her scarred and bald, and how she built her brothel business through a partnership with Junto.

Jones, furious at being blocked from Lutie, plots to punish her through Bub by engineering the boy's arrest for mail theft.

Lutie walks out of the casino after learning she will never be paid, recognizing that the American Dream will never extend to her.

Lutie visits talent manager Mr. Crosse, who demands sexual favors in exchange for free career help, and she attacks him with an inkwell before fleeing.

Lutie's furious outburst in front of Bub about the impossibility of being poor unwittingly drives him to accept Jones' offer to steal letters.

Bub enters neighborhood apartment buildings to steal letters from mailboxes, convincing himself that Jones' story about helping police is true.

Lutie visits Bub in the children's shelter and realizes that poverty, not race, is the single thread connecting all the mothers waiting in the room.

Lutie goes to Boots' lavish apartment to ask for the two hundred dollars, aware his motives are not pure but feeling she has no other choice.

Junto leaves Boots' apartment after Lutie refuses him, and Boots immediately seizes the opportunity to try to force himself on her.

Lutie takes money from Boots' wallet and buys a one-way train ticket to Chicago, telling herself Bub will be better off without her.

Long before Lutie arrives on 116th Street, a series of hard realizations and bad breaks have already shaped her path, from seeing through the Chandlers' passive racism to watching her marriage collapse after Pop's reckless party humiliates Jim. Forced to rebuild alone, Lutie attends night school and earns a file clerk position, clinging to the idea that discipline and hard work can still lift her out of poverty. On 116th Street, small discoveries accumulate into dread: she finds her blouse smudged by Jones, Mrs. Hedges reveals the brutal backstory behind her brothel empire, and Jones quietly plots to destroy Lutie by exploiting her trusting son. Each door Lutie tries to open is shut against her, from Junto's manipulation of Boots to a talent manager who demands sexual favors, until her own anguished outburst about poverty inadvertently pushes Bub into Jones' trap. The final revelation — that Junto himself has been waiting at Boots' apartment — confirms that the forces aligned against Lutie have always been too large to overcome, and her flight to Chicago leaves Bub behind and her future uncertain.