Margaret Avery

The film starts with expert assassin Mary (Taraji P. Henson) getting dressed up. She goes to the home of her target, a bookie named Marcus Miller. Mary shoots Marcus dead and then hears noise coming from a nearby room. She finds a young boy, Danny (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), playing video games. Realizing he is Marcus' son, Mary leaves the apartment filled with guilt. One year later. Danny is on his own, working for a criminal named 'Uncle' (Xander Berkeley), with Mary keeping a close eye on him from a distance. Danny delivers drugs to a man, Jerome (Owen Burke). After getting paid, Danny notices Jerome shorted him on money. Danny aims his gun at Jerome and demands more money until Jerome tells him there's money in the fridge, and that he can take what is owed to him. Danny takes the whole stash and walks out. He stops to get food on the way home. He returns the money to Uncle, who notices some money is missing. After Danny says he got food, Uncle smacks Danny and threatens to cut off his hand next time he takes from him. Danny goes outside to take a nap on a bench when someone swipes his bag. He runs after them and gets them to drop the bag when he takes out his gun and fires it. Danny starts to feel dizzy, and he faints. Moments later, he is found and taken in by Mary. Mary takes Danny to her apartment where she makes him some food. She warns him not to go into her room (which he does). Later, she goes to Uncle's place to return anything that Danny may have that belongs to him. Mary demands that Uncle let Danny go, but when his goons threaten her, Mary kills them before shooting Uncle in the head. Mary later goes to meet with her fellow assassins, led by Benny (Danny Glover). Uncle's criminal family thinks that someone from Benny's group killed Uncle to start a war. They are later visited by Uncle's brother Luka (Rade Serbedzija). Benny assures Luka that if anyone from his team had killed Uncle, they will be dealt with immediately. The team suspects that one of their guys, Walter (Neal McDonough), might be Uncle's killer. Benny instructs Mary to follow Walter since he goes for a run every day at 3:00. Mary tries to find Walter while she takes Danny out to get hot dogs. Mary misses Walter as he goes out but spends the afternoon with Danny overlooking the city by the water. He tells Mary how his mother left him and his dad when he was 7, and how his dad was killed. Danny went to stay with his grandmother, but she passed away too, and then someone brought him to Uncle. The next day, Mary goes for a run to follow Walter, maintaining her distance so he won't notice her. After following him under a bridge, Mary shoots Walter dead. Benny's son Tom (Billy Brown), who is also Mary's ex-boyfriend, comes to Mary's apartment. He finds Danny and menacingly tells him to let Mary know he wants to speak with her. When Mary gets home, Danny tells her about Tom showing up. She later takes Danny to Benny's home for the birthday of his wife, Mina (Margaret Avery). During the dinner, Danny mentions he's from Jamaica Plain. Tom later finds Mary in the kitchen and brings up how Marcus was the target from Jamaica Plain, so he pieces together that Danny was his son, and thinks that he could pin his father's murder on Benny and his crew. Mary assures Tom that's not the case. Benny later invites Mary to slow dance, where she says she wants to leave this life behind. When Mary and Danny leave, Tom tells Benny about Danny. Mary later meets up with Tom as they storm a hideout for Luka's guys. They kill everyone inside but they do not find Luka. Danny takes one of Mary's guns from her room and goes to find Benny. He takes out the gun and tells Benny to let Mary go. Benny then tells Danny that Mary is the one who killed his father since he owed them a lot of money, and she is only taking care of him out of guilt. Danny gives Benny the gun, just as Mary arrives after learning where he went. Danny leaves, and Mary shoots Benny dead moments later. Mary tries to run after Danny, just as Tom is informed of Benny's death. Jerome, who also works under Benny, tells Tom that it may have been Danny who killed Benny since he saw the kid going in alone and running out scared. Mary finds Danny by his spot over the water. She expresses great remorse over what she did and says not a day goes by that she doesn't regret killing his dad, but she did not take him in just because she felt guilty. Danny appears to forgive her. Mary drives Danny away, but he leaves the car and is taken by Tom and his goons. Tom soon figures that Mary really killed Benny. He sends her a message to inform her that they have Danny. Mary heads over to the warehouse where they're keeping him, and she proceeds to kill every one of Benny and Tom's guys. Mary finds Danny and frees him just as Tom finds them. Danny runs out, leaving Mary and Tom to fight. Mary succeeds and finishes Tom with a bullet to the head. In the final scene, Mary reunites with Danny outside, and they drive off to another location.

Dr. R.J. Stevens is a talk-show host who visits his family in the Deep South. While there he reunites with his brother Otis, his sister Betty, his cousin/rival Clyde, and his childhood love interest Lucinda Allen.

From 1909 to 1949, Celie, a Southern Black woman, strives to educate herself and to find love despite an abusive spouse and a society biased against her race and her sex.

Orange picker Leroy Jones inadvertently becomes a union leader and is forced out of town, leaving behind his wife Annie Mae and his sexually-obsessed father Rufus. Richard Pryor plays three roles: Leroy Jones, a poor orange-picker who gets laid off for accidentally joining the workers' union during one of their demonstrations; Leroy's father, whom he leaves behind with the rest of his family to go to Los Angeles; and Reverend Lenox Thomas, who impregnates Leroy's wife Annie Mae during his absence. In Los Angeles, Leroy ends up working for the same company that fired him back home; he is a manager at the company, but is now distant from his former pals. Though married, he falls in love with labor organizer Vanetta and must divide his time between her and Annie Mae. When he discovers that Annie Mae is pregnant by Reverend Thomas, he puts the moves on Mrs. Thomas. —mts77

Ragtime music publisher John Stark (Art Carney) watches Scott Joplin (Billy Dee Williams) walk down the back stairs of the Grand Opera House in New York City and recalls events from the composer's life. Joplin grows up in a musical family led by his mother, who washes clothes to pay for her son's piano lessons. When she dies, Scott's father considers music an activity for home and church and expects his son to labor for the railroad. Instead, Scott leaves home and finds work playing piano in a bordello. On his last day before leaving for Sedalia, Missouri, in 1899, Scott meets his replacement, Louis Chauvin (Clifton Davis), who decides to go with Scott and enter a "cutting contest," a head-to-head piano competition. The two agree to share the earnings if either one wins. In Sedalia's Maple Leaf Club, Scott tells the piano tuner that the A-flat key on one of the pianos is flat and introduces himself as a budding composer. The man advises him to seek out John Stark. Later, Chauvin informs his friend that the piano-tuner is Stark. During the competition, flashy performers eliminate one another, but Scott and Chauvin are the last men standing and Chauvin wins. However, the original tune by Scott catches the attention of Stark, who asks to see the music in his office the next day. Stark offers Scott $50 for the composition, called "Maple Leaf Rag," with ten percent royalties. Scott is ordered to demonstrate the tune by playing all day in Stark's store-front window, and to deliver the written composition that afternoon. Back at the Maple Leaf Club, the other piano players warn Scott that Stark is cheating him. Chauvin suggests they take their $100 prize money and move downriver to New Orleans, Louisiana. As Scott works on another song, he is seduced by a young woman and misses his appointment with Stark, who finds Scott at the Maple Leaf. When Scott announces that he can earn more playing saloons and brothels than by taking Stark's deal, Stark accuses the composer of fearing the challenge and Scott changes his mind. After signing with Stark, the sheet music to "Maple Leaf Rag" and other songs sell briskly, and ragtime music becomes popular. In 1901, a beautiful woman admires Scott's playing at Stark's store, so Scott follows her to a cemetery. He learns she is a widow named Belle Hayden (Margaret Avery) and they spend the day together. Scott tells her that Stark is moving his business to St. Louis, Missouri, and asks her to accompany him as his wife. They marry, move to St. Louis, and his publishing success continues. Later, Scott experiences some loss of control in his hand. Meanwhile, Sam Bundler (David Healy), the arts and music critic for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, comes to Stark's offices to interview Scott, wanting to write a piece decrying ragtime as the commercialization of a fad. Later, Scott sees a doctor who informs him that he has a secondary stage of syphilis. Scott has not yet infected Belle, but the disease could affect the child she is carrying, and the third stage could be debilitating for Scott. At the Joplin home, Chauvin visits with a prostitute on each arm. He teases Scott for his conservative appearance while Scott chides Chauvin for playing his music in ways other than it was written. Chauvin bears an invitation for Scott to play a gala gathering of madams at Tom Turpin's (Godfrey Cambridge) club and Scott dismisses the idea, despite longing for his raucous youth. When Belle says she does not mind if Scott plays at the club, he makes a surprise appearance and receives an ovation. As he plays, however, he remembers the woman who seduced and infected him in Sedalia and his hands begin to tremble. He recovers, but Chauvin observes the difference in his friend's performance. Sometime later, Stark notices that something is bothering Scott, who says he wants to distance himself from the past. Stark assures Scott that he is a great American composer and that he is proposing Scott to a committee staging the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. However, the committee, including Bundler, describes ragtime as crude and is reticent to feature Scott's music alongside John Philip Sousa. Meanwhile, Scott hopes for committee approval and writes a new rag for the fair. Receiving a note from Chauvin saying that he is ill, Scott reluctantly visits his friend, who asks him to transcribe his music so he, too, will be remembered. As Chauvin plays and Scott writes the notes, Chauvin loses control of his hands and says he will send for Scott when he has recovered. Afterward, on the street, Stark says that the committee has approved Scott for the World's Fair and that Belle has given birth to a baby girl. Scott rushes home to discover there is something wrong with the baby, so he confesses he has been deceitful. The World's Fair arrives and Scott's music is ignored, overwhelmed by the scope and volume of Souza and his orchestra. Scott rages at Stark for failing him and decides that he is going to write an opera in ragtime. Stark warns that it will be professional suicide, adding that he is moving to New York City and the Joplins should accompany him. Scott returns home in turmoil and finds Belle sitting alone in the nursery; the baby has died and Belle leaves him. Scott stops speaking to Stark and pours his energy into writing the opera. One day, he comes across the composition he transcribed for Chauvin and remembers his friend's request for help. In 1906 Chicago, Illinois, a derelict Chauvin returns to home to find Scott playing the piano and the old friends reunite before Chauvin passes away. In 1910, Scott goes to New York City to see Stark and hands him the composition he wrote with Chauvin, as well as a stack of newly written rags. After a celebratory dinner, Scott tells Stark that he has finished the opera, Treemonisha, and he wants Stark to finance it, but the publisher guesses that Scott is ill and tells the composer he will not pay penance for Scott's misdeeds. Later, Scott begins rehearsals with performers on his own, but they do not go well. Poor Alfred (musician Taj Mahal), Scott's piano player, tells Stark that Scott needs $3,000 to produce the opera and reports of the staging of a one-night, bare-bones showcase in Harlem. Although Stark claims he is penniless and is moving back to St. Louis, Alfred confesses that Scott is dying of syphilis and Stark agrees to find a backer. Later, Scott performs for one of Stark's potential investors and Stark reflects on Scott's career. While playing "The Entertainer," Scott's hands give him trouble and he is unable to finish. Later, Stark and Scott say goodbye on the back stairs of the Grand Opera House and Scott walks home alone as snow falls around him. In 1974, Joplin's music won an Academy Award® for The Sting (1973), Treemonisha was staged successfully on Broadway; and in 1976, the composer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Joplin died in 1917.

While investigating a murder, inspector Harry Callahan realizes the killers are police who have vowed to rid the city of crime by any means - even killing fellow police officers.