When millworkers are forced to work reduced hours for reduced pay, they go on strike. Thousands of millworkers in Lawrence, Massachusetts stop work and raise banners that read: "We want bread, and roses, too," leading to the name of the strike.

As state violence increases in intensity to stop the strike, family members send their children to New York and Philadelphia, where the children are welcomed by hundreds of cheering people. In Philadelphia, the police demand that the children return home, and when their mothers refuse, they are beaten and dragged by the hair as their children watch.

National support for the strike swells, particularly when the children testify alongside their parents during the legal investigation. The striking workers are successful, securing raises for their own wages and the wages of millworkers across the state of Massachusetts.