It's Christmas Eve. Nina Martino relishes having her Italian-American family gathered around the dinner table in her Florida home, enjoying their traditional Italian feast. The music and wine combine to create a harmonious, joyful atmosphere, one that Nina loves. Then she gets an unexpected phone call from her estranged father. There goes the party... A once powerful air-traffic controller and ruthless union leader, Joey Martino is a shadow of his former self, living in a small apartment in the Bronx with hardly two nickels to his name. But Nina remembers all too vividly those tumultuous, sometimes violent years of her childhood, and she and her father's relationship has only deteriorated further since then. Unfortunately, Joey has some news for his daughter that puts an entirely different spin on things: he is dying of cancer.
What follows is an extraordinary story of a father-daughter relationship strained by time and memory, yet ripe for forgiveness and a new beginning. Through Nina and Joey's eyes, A Wasted Life dramatically reveals the regret of forgotten dreams and shows how family shapes our very being.