On Alder Avenue in 1958 Detroit, neighbors struggle to care for neighbors amid a city ripe with conflicts that threaten their peaceful street. Grace, Alder's only expectant mother, eagerly awaits her first-born. Best friend Julia prepares to welcome visiting nieces. Life erupts when childlike Elizabeth disappears while in the care of Grace and Julia. All the ladies fear that the recent murder of a black woman in an alley near the factory on Willingham Avenue where their husbands work may warn of what has become of Elizabeth, and they worry what is yet to become of Julia, the last to see Elizabeth alive.