Irene is a working-class mother struggling to keep her marriage together while keeping her cocaine habit a secret. While in rehab she falls in love with a fellow addict, but when one of them relapses, their commitment to each other and sobriety shatters.

Selma, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, is a single mother working in a factory in rural America circa 1964. She is also afflicted by a hereditary disease, which will cost her her sight. Determined to protect her 10-year-old son from the same fate, Selma is saving her money to get him an operation. In the evenings, Selma escapes by rehearsing for a production of The Sound of Music with her best friend. When a neighbor betrays her trust, Selma's life...

Jane comes to Thornfield Hall as a governess to the young ward of Edward Rochester. Denied love all her life, Jane can't help but be attracted to the intelligent, vibrant, energetic Mr. Rochester, a man twice her age. But just when Mr. Rochester seems to be returning the attention, he invites the beautiful and wealthy Blanche Ingram and her party to stay at his estates. Meanwhile, the secret of Thornfield Hall could ruin all their chances for happiness....

It explores the friendship between two struggling single mothers: one a working-class white woman who ascends to the top of the business world, and the other her Black housekeeper, whose life is shattered by the rejection of her rebellious, white-passing daughter. It is this latter relationship attuned to America's bitter racial realities and heartbreakingly enacted by trailblazing Black performers Beavers and Washington that lends the film its transcendent...

Mary Smith is a poor working girl who literally has a fortune dropped in her lap when a wealthy financier tosses a sable coat out a window and it lands on her. Everyone automatically assumes she's his mistress, and soon her fairytale-like rags-to-riches lifestyle threatens a very real romance with an inept waiter.