A wealthy woman's ploy to flaunt her wealth is foiled by her old friend's seeming indifference to opulence - until they part, and the friend asks for money. The afternoon is ruined when the woman realizes that her obsession with money has ruined her outlook on life.

A married couple tries to make ends meet for their hungry and sick children in the midst of the Depression but soon realize that sheer willpower cannot save them from the ruthless winter.

A wife and mother struggles with her mental health as she endures immense stress from trying to fix up the family's new house while preserving her marriage.

An Italian man recounts how his father came into money upon arriving in the United States but spent and then lost it all when his factory caught fire. Despite his Papa’s veritable financial ignorance and dangerous pride, the son asserts none of it was ever his father's fault.

A wife living in a rural town wants to move out of her husband's house with her three children. However, her will wavers when a rainstorm prevents them from moving, and the husband begs them to stay.

Once fired from her housemaid post with the MacFarland family, whose son she loved deeply, Lula Borrow falls into street-peddling, religious fanaticism, and direly ill health. Lula Borrow barely escapes her abusive husband, whose maltreatment kills one of their two children. Her sole reprieve is a housemaid post with the MacFarland family, whose son she loves deeply, and when she is fired she falls into street-peddling, religious fanaticism, and direly ill health.

A man recalls the story of a young family in a small town during the Great Depression who were forced to make ends meet in clandestine ways.

After yet another hurricane, a Puerto Rican family reflects how they hide their struggles from their Americanized relatives.

An unemployed man struggles to help an equally penniless, yet shockingly beautiful, young woman in her search for food and shelter.

In late 20th century New Orleans, an alcoholic lawyer trades his concerns over his own marital struggles for those of another couple. When a man comes to him hoping to divorce his wife who he believes cheated on him, the lawyer finds a much sadder reality.