Flipper Purify (Wesley Snipes), a successful and happily married architect from Harlem, is married to Drew (Lonette McKee), who works as a Buyer (fashion) at Bloomingdales. Together, they have a young daughter, Ming (Veronica Timbers). At work, Flipper discovers that an Italian-American woman named Angie Tucci (Annabella Sciorra) has been hired as a temporary worker and his secretary. Angie lives in Bensonhurst with her abusive and racist father, Mike (Frank Vincent), and her two brothers, Charlie (David Dundara) and Jimmy (Michael Imperioli). Angie and her boyfriend Paulie Carbone (John Turturro) have been dating since high school. Paulie runs a corner store and lives his with elderly widowed father, Lou (Anthony Quinn). Angie feels suffocated in her home life; every night when she returns home from work she is expected to cook for her father and two brothers.