"I'm poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I'm here. I'm here."
It’s 1909 and a young girl who has had to endure terrible
sexual abuse from her father, baring him two children in the process, is given
to another man as a wife. Despite being freed from her father’s clutches this
is extremely painful for her as it means she is separated from her sister to
whom she is very close. Her new life is no better than her last as she soon
discovers that she is to be treated like a servant by her new husband, a man
much older than her and who shows her no love, affection or kindness. Tasked
with raising his children (one of which is barely younger than her),
maintaining the house and satisfying him sexually, the film follows her life
over the course of the next thirty or so years as she and other black female
characters have to endure some of the worst of the racism, sexism and poverty
that people had to face during those times.
