Small-time crook Rooney cons his crippled brother, a street-wise news vendor, into snatching a wealthy, emotionally-disturbed runaway to extort money from her parents, but the brother throws the get-rich-quick scheme awry by falling in love with her.

In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized.

In New Orleans, a relationship between a black man and a white girl leads to a string of murders.