Plot
Janiyah Wiltkinson is a single mother living in a dilapidated apartment with her frequently ill daughter, Aria. One morning, Aria expresses frustration over her inability to bathe herself and tells Janiyah that her teacher said she couldn't afford lunch. Though visibly upset, Janiyah focuses on getting to work.
As she leaves, Janiyah gives spare change to Benny, a neighbor in a wheelchair, prompting her landlord to threaten eviction unless rent is paid by 10:00 a.m. After dropping Aria off at school, Janiyah goes to her grocery store job, where a family throws a glass bottle at her after she refuses to process a WIC transaction for ineligible items. Her unsympathetic boss, Richard, orders her to clean up the mess. While in the back room, a friend who pities her attempts to help by offering her some money, but Janiyah refuses.
During her shift, Janiyah receives a call from the school reporting that Aria has sustained injuries, requesting her presence. Janiyah tries to explain they occurred during a seizure in the bathtub, but the school insists she comes over. Richard refuses to let her leave, furious that she always makes up excuses, and threatening to fire her if she doesn't return within 30 minutes, and refuses to pay her check when she politely asks.
She rushes to the bank to withdraw lunch money for Aria but is delayed by a long line. When she finally arrives at the school, she is confronted by the principal and Child Protective Services, who question her ability to care for the child and take Aria into custody despite her pleas.
Driving back to work in the rain, Janiyah accidentally cuts off an off-duty police officer, who retaliates by throwing a drink at her and forcing her off the road. Responding officers impound her car due to expired documents. When she returns to her job, Janiyah is fired, and Richard again refuses to issue her paycheck. Upon arriving home, she finds she has been evicted and her belongings discarded.
Janiyah returns to the store to confront her boss. While there, two armed robbers enter, where one addresses her by her name written on her name tag; one demands Aria's backpack, and when Janiyah refuses, she is assaulted. In the struggle, she grabs a gun and fatally shoots one of the robbers while the other one escapes. Despite explaining that the robber knew her name from her tag, Richard accuses her of staging the robbery and calls 911. He ruthlessly adds that he'll like to see what sort of parent she'll make from prison, upon which she shoots and kills Richard, then flees with her paycheck.
At the bank, a teller refuses to cash her check without proper identification, pushing Janiyah to pull out the gun in desperation. The teller complies, but a silent alarm is triggered. The bank manager, Nicole, recognizes Janiyah and attempts to calm her. Meanwhile, Detectives Raymond and Grimes, already investigating the earlier incident at the store, are alerted to the robbery.
Raymond, a former Army negotiator, speaks to Janiyah over the phone and gradually establishes a rapport. Meanwhile, inside the bank, a teller secretly livestreams the standoff, drawing public sympathy. When Janiyah discovers that the security cameras are on, she immediately demands that they switch them off. Nicole and Janiyah work together to disable the bank's cameras.
Meanwhile public support for Janiyah grows as the citizens rally outside demanding the police authorities "free Janiyah". Janiyah is triggered and frustrated by the science project her daughter made, which looks like her bomb, and attempts to turn it off much to the panic and fear of the hostages in the bank.
Janiyah realizes the confusion regarding the science project and demands that Nicole calls Detective Raymond and tell her the item in the backpack wasn't a bomb, but Nicole suggests otherwise, insisting that the "bomb" was the only thing stopping the police from storming into the bank. Meanwhile, another teller, Tessa, writes a message on a bathroom window revealing that the supposed “bomb” in Aria's backpack is actually a science project.
Detective Raymond identifies and confronts the off-duty officer who harassed Janiyah, and has him detained. When the FBI refuses to let Janiyah confirm his identity directly, Raymond sends Nicole in with a photograph. Janiyah confirms the officer's identity and releases the hostages, though Nicole chooses to stay with her.
Janiyah then receives a phone call from her mother, who reminds her that Aria died the night before from a seizure. A flashback reveals that Aria's presence throughout the day was a hallucination, and the earlier phone call from the school and the visit from Child Protective Services never occurred. Nicole, aware of Aria's death, remained to support and protect Janiyah.
As the FBI prepares to storm the bank, tear gas is fired and Janiyah hallucinates being shot. In reality, she peacefully surrenders to Detective Raymond, with Nicole at her side.
