YaVonna Cumberland is seeking the meaning of love. She is secretly dating a supermodel, Jersey Phelps, who wants to marry her, but she is not ready for a commitment because she is too emotionally scarred. Her mother Earlie Mae Mills is abusive and tries to control every aspect of YaVonna's life. YaVonna confronts her about the insults and innuendos and they begin to talk, I mean really talk Emotional demons are exposed when Earlie Mae shares her secrets of parental abandonment and sexual abuse. YaVonna lashes out at her mother for destroying her chances of ever marrying her child's father, Kenny Newark. Instead, Earlie Mae forces YaVonna to marry Thomas Cumberland, a handsome insurance salesman who is eight years her senior. Thomas invests every ounce of his being to earn YaVonna's love but is denied because she is pining over her abrupt separation with Kenny. Thomas seeks emotional comfort in extramarital affairs and gets snared by a 'gold-digger' named Saundra. Afraid she will lose her husband's devotion and financial support, YaVonna sinks to moral lows herself in order to teach Thomas and Saundra that she's no easy prey. YaVonna meets tragedy when her teen-aged son Todd is injured in a shooting. Feeling hopeless about his prognosis, she locates his estranged father in California. Kenny arrives in Chicago with more than Todd on his mind; he attempts to rekindle his relationship with YaVonna but discovers Kenny is not the man she thought he was. YaVonna learns that there is more to 'love' than heart-felt emotions.