Niecy (Kerry Washington), a young African-American woman, lives in inner-city Boston but works at Kennedy's, an upscale department store. Niecy is ambitious, intelligent, stylish ... and a proficient shoplifter who filches clothes and credit cards with equal aplomb. But when she's lured into a scheme to steal a small fortune in diamonds with a local gang, she finds that life as a criminal may not be all it's cracked up to be.