A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.

When billionaire industrialist goes into a hospital for a heart operation, some people who claim to be revolutionaries enter the operating room and draw guns and holds the man and the entire surgical staff hostage. They then demand 10 million dollars. The administrator calls the police and the FBI. The police claim jurisdiction over the matter and the man in charge is intent on taking them even if some of the hostages get killed. Eventually they learn that some of the people in hospital are with them.

Bobby Rose has just returned home after graduating business school. He agrees to start working for his father, a successful carpet manufacturer. Bobby's dreams of a cushy junior exec position are quashed when he's told to report to the shipping department, where he's trained as a delivery driver. Learning the business from the ground up embitters Bobby, as well as his coworkers, some of whom, he discovers, are stealing from the company.

In this drama that was a UCLA student thesis expanded to feature length, two African-Americans come from Tennessee to Los Angeles. The man will not marry the woman as he has just been released from prison and cannot commit himself. He ends up working in a factory, while she gets a job as a maid. The two split up after he gets involved in a strike. She goes to school but ends up laid off from a good paying job. Later the two meet again. Both are surprised by the great changes in their lives since they have been apart.