In 1971, Angela Edwards runs away from the sheltered life she lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming a movie star.

Unable to speak of the horrors she witnessed that day, Mildred grows into a quiet, risk-averse woman who nevertheless has a vivid and active imagination and finds it difficult to blend in with the church-going women of her community.

William and Mildred fall in love and he shows her how the projection machine works and introduces her to the art of Jacob Lawrence.

Feeling as though she has disappointed her children, Mildred breaks off the affair and William leaves town, giving her a book he owned on Jacob Lawrence.

Angela continues the tradition her mother Mildred started by dragging her daughter along to movies and showing her the old blaxploitation films in which she appeared as a nude extra.

Unlike Tamara, Colin is from a wealthy family and the class differences between them grow greater as they begin to work on their thesis films.

Her interest in filmmaking is resurrected and she begins to shoot footage of her grandmother, Mildred, talking about the Tulsa race riot.