Recently widowed Godfrey is under the spell of Sweet Father Divine, while his teen daughters, Ernestine and Ermina, immerse themselves in the illusions of Hollywood to escape the realities of racial prejudice in 1950's Brooklyn. But things change quickly when free-spirited Aunt Lily shows up! Suddenly, Godfrey remarries a white woman, Ermina discovers boys, and Ernestine is torn between the embrace of communism and bebop.