Martha & Ethel tells the stories of two women in their 80s: a German-Catholic woman named Martha and an African-American woman named Ethel, the former nannies of director/producer Jyll Johnstone and co-producer Barbara Ettinger. It examines each woman’s background and hiring into affluent New York families. The Johnstone and Ettinger children, now grown, reflect on how Martha and Ethel played formative—and often confusing—roles in their lives.