Claudie is traveling from Harlem to Georgia with Mama and Cousin Sidney to meet her grandmother and cousins for the first time. She hopes that learning her family's story will inspire her for the variety show she's planning to raise money to save the boardinghouse her family lives in. Claudie's grandmother tells her a legend from slavery times called "The People Could Fly." In it, an old man whispers magic words, and the enslaved people grow wings...

Amelie Poulain has led a sheltered life, educated at home by her parents, she lives in a fantasy world of her own. When she finally leaves home and finds work as a waitress in a Parisian cafe, life is uneventful until a chain of extraordinary events leads her to the discovery of a box containing a schoolboy's long forgotten mementos. It is then that Amelie discovers her vocation in life - helping others find love and happiness - which she sets about...