When a $10,000 life insurance check provides the Younger family a chance to escape the grinding poverty and frustration of life in a crowded Chicago flat, Walter Lee (Sidney Poitier) views the money as a way to free him from working as a chauffeur so he can invest in a liquor store. Desperate to get a decent home for the family, Walter's widowed mother, Lena (Claudia McNeil), wants it for a house that Walter Lee's wife, Ruth (Ruby Dee), hopes can rescue her children from their dreary environment. And for Lena's daughter, it means her only chance to attend medical school. As Walter Lee's agonizing conflicts tear at the family's roots, Lena demonstrates trust in him by making a small down payment on the house and then giving him the rest of the money on the promise that he'll save some for his sister's education. But when he risks it all on the liquor store, only to have his partner run off with the money, Walter Lee is faced with the ugly job of selling the house to a neighborhood home owners association that is determined to keep African-Americans out. Yet, at the last moment, he rejects their offer and begins moving the family into their new home.