Set in 1905 New York City, Esther, a black seamstress, lives in a boarding house for women and sews intimate apparel for clients who range from wealthy white patrons to prostitutes. Her skills and discretion are much in demand, and she has managed to stuff a goodly sum of money into her quilt over the years. Longing for a husband and a future, her plan is to find the right man and use the money she’s saved to open a beauty parlor where black women will be treated as royally as the white women she sews for. She finds herself torn between George, the lonesome Caribbean man who writes her beautiful letters, and a Hasidic shopkeeper from whom she buys cloth. As she begins to face bouts of betrayal, Esther returns to the boarding house determined to use her gifted hands and her sewing machine to refashion her dreams and make them anew from the whole cloth of her life’s experiences.