Helga Crane, the story’s protagonist, sits in her room at Naxos—a school for young black girls in the South—where she teaches. Helga is 23 years old and is a beautiful mixed-race woman with golden skin and a slight frame. She didn’t get a lunch break earlier in the day because everyone was required to attend a sermon by a white preacher. His sermon irritated Helga, because he said the black people at Naxos knew how to “stay in their places” and that the race problem would disappear if all black people acted like that. Helga finds the system at Naxos highly problematic because she detects an undercurrent of racism in the way the school is run, even down to the way black staff are required to wear muted colors because the dean of women thinks “bright colors are vulgar” on dark skin. Helga feels frustrated, and decides she needs to quit her job. Even though it would be prudent to wait out the school year, she feels she must leave Naxos (and her fiancé, James Vayle), immediately.
The next morning, Helga visits the new principal, Dr. Anderson, to hand in her resignation. She is taken aback by his piercing gray eyes and kind demeanor, but keeps her resolve. Helga explains that she can’t stand Naxos. Dr. Anderson implores her to stay, passionately explaining how they can work together to fix things. Helga is moved by his speech and almost changes her mind, until he calls her a “lady.” Suddenly, she bursts out that she’s no lady: her black father left her white immigrant mother. Helga storms out of the room, never to return again.
Helga takes a train to Chicago, and frets about the way she talked to Dr. Anderson. For some reason, she can’t get him out of her mind. When Helga gets to Chicago, she decides to visit her kind Uncle Peter. After Helga’s father left her mother, Helga had to live with her mother’s second husband who hated Helga for being half-black. When Helga was 15, her mother died, but Uncle Peter sent Helga to a school for black girls, where she finally started to fit in. Unfortunately, Uncle Peter’s racist new wife, Mrs. Nilssen, answers the door and turns Helga away, telling her never to come back again.
Helga resolves to find work instead. However, she soon realizes it’s much harder to find work than she imagined, especially as she has no reference, and most of the jobs for women of color are in domestic labor. Weeks pass and Helga gets desperate. Eventually, she lands a short-term gig helping a woman named Mrs. Hayes-Rore correct speeches about the “race problem” for a few days on a train ride to New York. Mrs. Hayes-Rore takes pity on Helga when she hears her life story, and suggests Helga come to stay in Harlem where Mrs. Hayes-Rore can fix her up with a job. Mrs. Hayes-Rore introduces Helga to her niece, Anne, who takes Helga in as a roommate.
A year later, Helga is enjoying a pleasant life in Harlem. She is relieved to be away from white people and resolves to lock that part of herself away. Helga bumps into Dr. Anderson at a community meeting and there is palpable chemistry between them. However, when Dr. Anderson stops by to take Helga on a date, she panics and slips out the back door. She feels shameful and disappointed. Soon after, Helga starts to feel restless and dissatisfied with her life. One day, a letter comes from Uncle Peter, apologizing for the way Mrs. Nilssen treated Helga. He encloses a check for her inheritance of $5,000 and suggests that Helga visit her family in Copenhagen. That night, at a jazz club, Helga sees Dr. Anderson on a date with Audrey Denney. Anne hisses to Helga that Audrey is disgusting because she dates interracially. Helga is revolted by Anne’s disapproval of mixed-race couples, but bites her tongue. A lot of things about Anne have been bugging Helga, like the way she espouses hatred for white people yet imitates their tastes, thinking it makes her classier. Helga leaves the jazz club feeling forlorn, and resolves to leave Harlem.
Soon after, Helga sails to Copenhagen and is met by her Aunt Katrina and Katrina’s new husband, Herr Dahl. They welcome Helga with open arms, buy her many extravagant clothes, and show her off around town. Helga feels a little put off by the way they dress her up and parade her around, but she goes with it because she likes the attention. Helga slips into a luxurious life of dinner parties and cultural outings in Copenhagen. She develops feelings for a wealthy artist, Axel Olsen, whom Helga’s aunt and uncle hire to paint her portrait. When Axel Olsen proposes, however, Helga is overcome with feelings of shame, fear, and anger, and refuses him, saying she’s “not for sale” to any white man. Helga also hates the portrait, which depicts her in an overtly sexualized way. The Dahls are disappointed in Helga’s refusal of Axel Olsen—it’s clear that they wanted her to marry well in order to increase their own social standing. After a few tense weeks during which Helga feels restless, she receives a letter from Anne. Anne is engaged to Dr. Anderson, which upsets Helga even more. Helga decides that she’s homesick for Harlem and black people, and decides to return to Harlem for Anne’s wedding.
Helga returns to Harlem, but Anne keeps her distance. Anne disapproves of Helga’s time among white people, and she also knows Dr. Anderson is deeply attracted to Helga. A few weeks later at a party, Helga trips and falls into Dr. Anderson’s arms and they share a deep and passionate kiss. Neither of them mentions it again, although Helga can’t stop thinking about it. A few weeks later, Dr. Anderson asks Helga if they can meet alone. Helga is ecstatic, thinking she can’t deny her feelings for Dr. Anderson any longer, and that this is her chance at happiness. However, when Dr. Anderson meets Helga, all he does is apologize for the kiss. Helga is suddenly overcome with shame and rage. She slaps him and runs out of the room.
The next day, Helga is distraught. She walks furiously through the streets during a rainstorm and gets blown into a gutter. Seeking shelter, Helga runs into the nearest building to discover a church service going on. She collapses into hysterics and the congregation crowds around her, trying to save her soul. Overcome with her wrecked nerves, Helga starts screaming. All of a sudden, she feels calm, and at peace, and the congregation cheers because they think she’s been saved. A “rattish yellow man” named Reverend Mr. Pleasant Green escorts Helga home, and Helga decides to marry him on a whim, partly to spite Dr. Anderson.
After Helga marries the Reverend, she finds herself living in a small impoverished town in rural Alabama with three small children. For a time, Helga is happy, and her shabby life feels rich because it is illuminated by her faith. Nonetheless, Helga struggles to manage a hard life of poverty and childrearing, and her body grows weaker with each passing day. The townsfolk reassure Helga that God will reward her for her toiling in the afterlife. When giving birth to her fourth child, Helga falls into a fever that lasts for several weeks, and is secretly relieved when her infant child dies. Fragments of Helga’s life flash before her eyes, and she realizes she was deeply in love with Dr. Anderson. She also realizes that she finds her husband repulsive and feels that he ruined her life. Helga becomes disillusioned with her faith, and decides that religion is just a tool that’s used to mask miserable living conditions among poor and black people. Helga resolves to get better and run away from this horrible life. However, just as she’s finally well enough to leave her bed, she starts giving birth to her fifth child.
