RESPECT tells the life story of singer Aretha Franklin. The movie starts 1952 at her father’s home where he throws large parties and then goes to preach the next day in the largest black church in Detroit. At one party, a man comes into Aretha’s room and rapes her. Later, it’s revealed Aretha has had two children out of wedlock. Eventually, after a stint with Columbia Records, Aretha finds her voice in 1967 while recording for Atlantic Records and at the famous FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. However, her first husband, who was also her manager, was abusive, and Aretha increasingly has problems with alcohol.