诺拉?达林是个住在纽约布鲁克林区的年轻黑人妇女。她与三个男人有性关系：体贴但保护过度的杰米；富有但傲慢的格里尔；风趣但幼稚的马斯。三人都想独占她的爱，但诺拉想维持她的独立，拒绝选定一个单一伴侣。三个追求者的急躁——和不安全感——迫使她做出选择，但不久后，她开始怀疑自己是否选择了那个正确的人，甚至怀疑她到底需不需要一个男人。

"Daughters of the Dust" tells the story of a family of African-Americans who have lived for many years on a Southern offshore island, and of how they come together one day in 1902 to celebrate their ancestors before some of them leave for the North. The film is narrated by an unborn child, and ancestors already dead also seem to be as present as the living.