When fifteen-year-old Ella Fitzgerald's mother dies at the height of the Depression in 1932, the teenager goes to work for the mob to support herself and her family. When the law finally catches up, the "ungovernable" adolescent is incarcerated in the New York Training School for Girls. Determined to be free, Ella escapes and makes her way back to Harlem. Looking for a break into show business, Ella appears at the Apollo Theater's Amateur Night on November 21, 1934. Four years later, at barely twenty-one, Ella Fitzgerald has become the bestselling female vocalist in America.
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