Voices of generations past whisper through the Walker home in Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood. Ida shoos the voices away as her son Lindon works on a painting. Outside, Ida’s daughter Zoe warily approaches the house with her husband Glenn. Zoe is overwhelmed by childhood memories as she looks out over the block. Zoe asks Glenn to let her enter the house alone — she hasn’t visited Ida and Lindon in years.  

The family’s reunion is uneasy. Lindon’s brotherly banter is a tad too sharp, Ida is quick to question her daughter’s motivations, and Zoe can’t stop pointing out items in need of repair. But where Zoe sees decay, Ida and Lindon see their family history. Ida remembers her own sister Lucy and all the trouble they used to get into together as young girls, despite their mother’s strict rules.  

Ida is pulled back to the present when Zoe reveals that she’s pregnant, but Ida isn’t pleased. She’s agitated by the ghostly figures of Lucy, her husband Milton, and her mother Beulah lingering in the background. Zoe can’t see the ghosts, who crowd around the Walkers as the house pressures a reluctant Ida to tell Zoe the truth.  

Ida brings to life the history and former inhabitants of the house. Originally purchased by Minus Walker, the son of a sharecropper, the house passes in the 1930s to Ida’s Uncle Percy, who lives fast, wild, and far beyond his means. Beulah begs her brother not to squander the fruit of their father’s hard work. As Percy’s recklessness spirals out of control, he begins selling all their possessions to keep his creditors at bay. Desperate not to lose their home, Beulah commits an act of violence to protect their father’s legacy.

Thomas, Lindon’s boyfriend, drops by the house with some shopping and affectionately greets Zoe. Like Zoe, Thomas is eager to get Lindon out of the house and suggests a trip to Valencia, Spain. The two lovers’ argument blends with another ghostly couple’s…young Ida begs an aloof Milton for love, but he warns her not to ask for more than he can give.  

Zoe is getting some fresh air on the stoop when Glenn returns from a coffee shop around the corner. She confesses that she’s having second thoughts about their plan to move into the brownstone, but Glenn begs her not to give up on their dream. Zoe goes back inside and asks Lindon once again to let her renovate their home. Ida cryptically accuses Zoe of being too much like her aunt Lucy.  

We travel to the past where Lucy leads a Black nationalist meeting at the house. Young Ida has brought her fiancé Milton home to meet her family, painfully unaware that Milton and Lucy are about to fall in love with each other. Later, Beulah confronts Lucy, who is pregnant with twins. Lucy views motherhood as an obstacle to her future dreams, but Milton desperately wants to be a father. Lucy begrudgingly gives birth, but then refuses to feed or care for the infants. As Milton tries to comfort the screaming babies, Young Ida argues with Lucy to disastrous results. 

Ida has finally revealed all her secrets to her horrified daughter. Worried, Glenn enters the house to find a distressed Zoe, who emotionally confronts her mother and brother. After one last stunning revelation, Zoe is forced to make her peace with the past so she and Glenn can step into the future.