Julie (Barbara Barrie), a young Midwestern mother, takes all the right steps to assure a promising environment for her newborn daughter. She relocates, gets a job and secures a legal divorce. When Julie falls in love with Frank (Bernie Hamilton), an African-American man who works at the same factory, her ex-husband, Joe (Richard Mulligan), takes her to court in the hopes of getting custody. Frank is advised to flee to keep his new family together, but instead he confronts the biased system.