Tanita Brown's life kin Bushwick, Brooklyn doesn't have any slack. Still a teenager, she helps her grandmother raise her younger brother and provide shelter to recently evicted neighbours. When Tanita has the chance to speak about poverty at the United Nations, she's excited... but even more overwhelmed, especially when she meets the disparaging Blandine Dulavoir, a UN diplomat. Blandine runs her Manhattan life like a well-oiled machine - until meeting Tanita and the volunteers who run children's art workshops on the sidewalk. When Ahmed travels from Tanzania to New York, both Tanita and Blandine are pushed to re-examine the ways they look at the world.