Juan Garcia is a boy on the threshold of manhood living in a gang-controlled neighborhood. His role models could not be further apart: his older sister Angie, a single mom, struggling to gain a foothold in the white corporate world and his uncle Manny, an ex-gang member, who has fallen into an acting career playing gang members since his release from prison. With the future on his doorstep, Juan, like most boys, can only think of girls and is unaware of the judicial system's hard line stance against gang affiliation.

Juan Garcia is a boy on the threshold of manhood living in a gang-controlled neighborhood. His role models could not be further apart: his older sister Angie, a single mom, struggling to gain a foothold in the white corporate world and his uncle Manny, an ex-gang member, who has fallen into an acting career playing gang bangers since his release from prison. With the future on his doorstep, Juan, like most boys, can only think of girls and is unaware of the judicial system's hard line stance against gang affiliation.

After spending 8 years in prison for an unfortunate accident, heavy-weight boxer Joey Nardone returns to a solitary life in Philadelphia. His time in prison and the opportunity to reflect has changed him. Feeling like a stranger in his own neighborhood and searching for some semblance of normalcy, he takes a job at the boxing gym where he used to work-out. Joey finds comfort in the familiarity of his old friends. But his buddies notice a change in Joey Nardone. Where is the spark and zest for life, once inherent in their pal Joey? Joey, struggling to find meaning in life, meets a 14 yr. old Puerto Rican kid named Jesus, who is repeatedly beaten up by the neighborhood bully. The kid, not used to kindness from strangers, has no time for Joey. Life is hard for Jesus, a scrawny boy, who is not only dealing with his peers picking on him at school, but he also has an alcoholic, abusive father to contend with at home...