The Younger family, frustrated with living in their crowded Chicago apartment, sees the arrival of a $10,000 insurance check as the answer to their prayers. But the family is divided when matriarch Lena Younger entrusts the balance of the money to her mercurial son Walter Lee, against the wishes of her daughter and daughter-in-law. It takes the strength and integrity of this African-American family to battle against generations of prejudice to try to achieve their piece of the American Dream.
