As her family falls apart, seventeen year old Sweetness O'Hara is left to fend for herself in a neighborhood where her survival is uncertain.

Shawn MacArthur, the kindhearted son of an Alabama wrestling coach, makes a grim living selling fake products on the streets in New York. After dealing with thieving punks, he's discovered by bare-knuckle street-fight manager Harvey Boarden. He soon proves himself worthy and starts earning a small fortune, part of which he volunteers to spend on single mother Zulay Velez. Shawn doesn't cheat, and just that seems a major problem, notably after the arrival of his Alabama high-school rival.

It's not the crime, it's the cover-up. In small-town, hard-scrabble New Hampshire, foul-mouthed all-talk slacker John "Rugged" Rudgate fancies himself a criminal. When a local plumber stares him down at a pub, Rugged vows revenge, pouring brake fluid in the man's water supply. When the man dies from unrelated causes, Rugged and his side-kick, the even dimmer Jeff, try to cover up what they think is murder. One bad decision begets another.

Dito, a writer in L.A., goes home to Astoria, Queens, after a 15-year absence when his mother calls to say his father's ill. In a series of flashbacks we see the young Dito, his parents, his four closest friends, and his girl Laurie, as each tries to navigate family, race, loyalty, sex, coming of age, violence, and wanting out. A ball falls onto the subway tracks at a station, small things get out of hand. Can Dito go home again?