Based on Fannie Hurst's novel, a white woman gets rich with
her black housekeeper's pancake recipe; they are friends but have
conflicts with their daughters.
Widow Bea Pullman (Claudette Colbert) prepares her girl Jessie
for day nursery. Black Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) asks Bea
for a job as housekeeper if her daughter Peola can live there.
Delilah says Bea needs loving and shares her secret recipe for
pancakes. Bea was selling maple syrup but rents a place for pancakes
and gets a painter and furniture man (Alan Hale) without a down
payment. In five years the business is a success. Peola cries
because Jessie called her black. At school Peola hides from her
mother, because she was passing for white. Bea gives pancakes
to broke Elmer Smith (Ned Sparks), who advises her to box the
flour. Bea and Elmer tell Delilah they made $15,000, but Delilah
still wants to live with Bea.
At the tenth anniversary party Peola Johnson (Fredi Washington)
tells Delilah that she wants to be white, and Bea meets ichthyologist
Stephen Archer (Warren William), who stays after and kisses her.
Delilah asks Bea about Stephen. Bea suggests that Delilah send
Peola to college, but she does not want to go to a Negro college.
Elmer complains that Stephen ruined a businesswoman. Stephen asks
Bea to marry and go to sea, and she asks him to keep it a secret
from Jessie. Stephen meets Jessie Pullman (Rochelle Hudson), who
tells Bea she needs new clothes. Stephen invites Jessie to his
aquarium. Delilah tells Bea that Peola left school, and Bea goes
with her to help. They find Peola working as a cashier; but Peola
pretends she does not know Delilah, and Bea reprimands her.
At home Peola apologizes to her mother but says she wants to
go away. Delilah cries and says she can't give up her child. Jessie
tells Bea she has been seeing Stephen and doesn't want to go back
to school. Jessie goes to Stephen and says she loves him though
he calls her a baby. Delilah takes sick and asks Bea for a good
funeral. Bea overhears Stephen telling Jessie he is engaged. Jessie
tells Bea she is going back to school. Elmer comes in and says
Bea can sell her management, but Bea says she changed her mind.
Stephen comes in, and Elmer leaves; but Bea learns that Delilah
is dying, crying "Peola." At her funeral in a black
church Peola cries and asks forgiveness of her mother. Stephen
asks Bea to marry right away; but Bea says that Jessie is in love
with Stephen, and so she can't marry even though she loves him.
Stephen agrees to wait. Jessie tells Bea that Peola is going back
to school.
This is one of the rare films of this era to face racism;
in this case it leads a light woman to try to pass for white by
avoiding her black mother. The white mother also sacrifices her
immediate happiness so as not to hurt her daughter's feelings.