The setting is Los Angeles, 1992, weeks following the Rodney King verdict and the ensuing riots. The heroine, Esther Jackson-seemingly self confident but quaveringly intense-has a good position as a regional operations manager of a bank. Esther has glass-ceilinged her way to a two bedroom house in an L.A. suburb, but along with success, she carries the contradictory burdens of compromise, determination & humiliation required of women of color who move up the corporate ladder.