In the late 1890s, the ambitious, innocent Carrie arrives in Chicago’s South Side and stays with her nagging, dullish married sister. She then runs for help to traveling salesman Charles Drouet. She soon becomes his mistress, but falls in love with married restaurant manager George Hurstwood.

A successful African American businessman has a quarrel with a white policeman, suspecting that he is having an affair with his wife. The policeman's colleagues are seeking to avoid publicity.