A young, black woman, Violet (Sanaa Lathan), has a seemingly perfect life: she is successful in her job as an advertising executive, has been with her boyfriend Clint (Ricky Whittle), a doctor, for two years, and has perfect long straight hair, despite the effort it takes to maintain. Violet shares a close relationship with her mother (Lynn Whitfield) who has always attempted to keep Violet the vision of perfection. She and Violet's father (Ernie Hudson) recently became estranged after he quit his job to pursue modeling. Violet expects Clint to propose on her birthday, and after getting sprayed by the neighbor's hose, visits a salon to attempt to get her hair fixed. The salonist makes a mistake, however, and gives her relaxer instead of conditioner, causing her hair to begin to fall out. Violet causes a scene, insulting the salon owner’s daughter's afro since she was partly responsible for the incident, and then gets a weave to cover her head.