 The year is 1969, in Upstate New York. Odessa, a wise and magical African-American woman in her 40 s comes to the Spinelli household to care for their 10 year-old daughter, Lisa. Together they learn to deal with forgiveness, desegregation and family values during an extremely turbulent time in American history. Lisa does so through Odessa s wisdom and in turn Odessa is inspired to stand up for her own son Leonard who is in jail for 10 years for a crime he did not commit.