Hobbs is a young African-American man who concludes his 2-year jail sentence and returns to his bleak hometown with a lack of opportunities.
Here he meets four strangers Clarence (Glynn Turman), Gracie (Lynn Whitfield), Benny (Reginald T. Dorsey), Lucy (Linara Washington), all finding themselves in similar positions.
Homer Hobbs (Tyson Beckford) rents a room in a boarding house run by a firm hand (Lynn Whitfield), a beautiful yet weary woman who has had a hard life.
Kind hearted Clarence (Glynn Turman) feels marginalized to barely existing on his slow to arrive government checks.
Lucy (Linara Washington) is pretty and vivacious while she works long hours as a seamstress in a sweatshop, dreaming to open her own dress shop.