Yes Ma'am explores the lives of Black domestic workers in the somewhat anachronistic setting of the old South. Filmed in the stately mansions of New Orleans, the documentary shows how these maids are called upon to maintain the gracious lifestyle once common to the now-faded gentry. On the surface all is well: employee and employer exist in a harmony of position. But it soon becomes apparent that the work is physically hard and the compensation poor. Director Goldman interviews lifelong "retainers" for prominent families, day-workers in several homes, the children of domestics, and the children these domestics care for. Many of the maids of New Orleans describe their estrangement from their own children, as they raise the offspring of their well-to-do employers. The film also looks at the role of the maid in a changing social environment. As the inequities of race are slowly eroded, what is the impact on these domestic workers who must "know their place" as a requirement for employment? An ironic social document, Yes Ma'am sweeps nothing under the rug.