Susan Kohner

Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson, a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though, Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.

The minister of the town has died and his son Chad has no tears for him. Sarah, who now calls herself Salome, is pregnant with Chad's baby, but Chad has no future, no job and no money. Therefore, she leaves town on the train heading East. On the train she meets Tony who is heading back to Yale. Tony and his sister Catherine have one thing in common; they are both young, rich and bored with their lives. Salome goes to Yale with Tony and they are soon married, but she does not tell him about Chad or the pregnancy. Ruby takes Chad to New York where he plays trumpet and makes a name for himself. Catherine leaves school and moves in with Tony and Salome, creating tension between the young couple.