In the film, the protagonist Cheryl, played by the director, is an aspiring black lesbian filmmaker attempting to bring about the history of black lesbians in cinematic history while attempting to produce her own work, saying "our stories have never been told." The story explores the difficulty in navigating archival sources that either excludes or ignores black lesbians working in Hollywood, particularly that of actress Fae Richards whose character bore the name that provides the title for the film. The film also features a number of appearances by LGBT art figures such as Cheryl Clarke, Camille Paglia, David Rakoff, Sarah Schulman and others.