Leo Waters is an idealistic architect and patriarch of an affluent, suburban Chicago family. Tonya Neeley is a pragmatic activist who is trying to keep her family together while living in one of the city's most drug and crime-infested public housing projects. As part of her ongoing campaign to have the projects torn down and decent housing built in its place, Tonya decides that the one signature she needs more than any other on her petition is that of the projects' original architect, Leo Waters.