"In the half a square mile of decay and demolition that was England's Saxon capital, eternity is loitering between the firetrap housing projects. Embedded in the grubby amber of the district's narrative among its saints, kings, prostitutes, and derelicts a different kind of human time is happening, a soiled simultaneity that does not differentiate between the petrolcolored puddles and the fractured dreams of those who navigate them. Fiends last mentioned...

Based on Gloria Naylor's novel, The Women of Brewster Place examines a group of strong-willed women, neighbors in the same slum, who all have been adversely affected by misguided idealism. Luciela (Lynn Whitfield) can't emotionally detach herself from an untrustworthy husband; life in the fast lane has run aground for Etta Mae (Jackee) after the bright lights of New York City have turned dim; Kiswana (Robin Givens) has renounced her middle class...