After finding herself arrested on domestic violence charges, 33-year-old Girlie Brown must navigate through an unjust court system and an abusive past.  With 52 weeks of mandatory anger management classes, Girlie has to reach deep inside to get back to the one thing she knows...herself.

SYNOPSIS:

On January 27th, 33-year-old Girlie Brown—an African and Native American woman who had never broken the law—was arrested for domestic violence.

After being booked, Girlie finds herself locked up with an inmate who is in for similar charges, the only difference is that the inmate is a middle-class White woman. After going before the judge, the inmate tells Girlie that the judge didn’t have her go into the courtroom, that she was taken into a private room and told to “stay out of trouble”, before being released and having the charges dropped. Girlie’s confidence is raised as she has never been in trouble with the law. As she meets the same judge, smiling, the judge rips into Girlie—telling her she is not fit to live in society. Girlie is confused by all of this, and has been sent back to jail until she can post bail.

Girlie calls her sister, only to find out that the only one who can help her doesn’t have any money and her mother and father have washed their hands on Girlie’s situation. Girlie has to wait, alone and longing to be reunited with her 4-year-old son. Mandated by the judge to see a criminal psychologist, Girlie meets with him and finds out a woman has spoken on her behalf as a family member to the judge...Mrs. Louise Flemmings. Girlie tells the psychologist that this woman is not her family, but the demented, crippled mother of her abusive ex, the father of her son, Tyrone Flemmings. Girlie makes it clear that Louise and Tyrone would do anything to keep Girlie away from her son. The psychologist makes note to Girlie’s case, but she won’t be able to see the judge again until Friday, which is another three days in the hellish jail.

After being released with a sentence of three years probation and 52 weeks of mandatory anger management classes, Girlie finds herself back at home and missing her baby boy. She steps outside to see who is honking their horn, and sees Louise telling Girlie to come to the car. Girlie, already upset with Louise, tells her she just wants her son. Louise tells Girlie that there will be a problem—Tyrone has a restraining order against her, and she is not to be within 100 feet of him.

Things get worse before they get better for Girlie, she calls a “friend”—Leslie, who is the mother of Tyrone’s older daughters—only to find out that Leslie is the one that told Tyrone to get the restraining order, and wants nothing else to do with the situation. While Girlie was in jail, the pending case. To her surprise, she is also being blamed for a fire—the fire at Tyrone’s apartment after she was already in jail. And to top it all off, if she doesn’t get into an anger management class by the next day—she’s going back to jail.

Girlie finds a class in time where she works, Highland Hospital. She meets Isabel, the class instructor who helps her, as Girlie is now going through a bitter custody battle over her son with Tyrone and Louise. The custody battle and stories of abuse from the other women in the class make Girlie reflect on how painfully horrible things were with Tyrone. She thinks about all the times he strangled her, beat her, and how she had to learn to protect herself or she would find herself dead. Girlie realizes that she wants better for herself, for her son and commits to learning to love herself, getting a transfer to another department at her job and finally working out a reasonable custody agreement with Tyrone.

After being unexpectedly fired from teaching the class, Isabel pulls Girlie to the side, giving her the anger management certificate, four weeks early. Girlie takes the certificate to the judge, who tells Girlie that she has come a long way, and is very hopeful for Girlie’s future. Girlie puts the ordeal behind her and moves on with her son.