During the 1940's, A young boy grows up in an immigrant Eastern European Jewish family in Camden, New Jersey. Family members relate stories of his parents' and their own adaptions to the new country. His father's drug store becomes the center of his world through acculturation and confusing definitions of being a responsible young man in America. Late puberty introduces struggles with emerging masculinity and self-doubt, and eventually, the boy reaches desperately to achieve his dream of being part of the high school basketball team.