When the family patriarch dies, a poor African-American family living on Chicago’s South Side, must decide what to do with the soon-to-arrive insurance settlement. Should it be used to establish a liquor store, as son Walter Lee plans to do, hopefully moving the family out of poverty? Or should his mother’s religious objections to alcohol be considered? Family tensions rise as the future of the Younger family is weighed against the difficulties of the harsh and changing world in which they live. Questions of race and politics, of assimilation and historical awareness are seamlessly interwoven in this touching and wrenching family drama.