Michael Abcarian is a young Armenian man living in Glendale, California with a growing sense of obligation to his father, Leon, who had sacrificed everything to get his family to America. Leon, in his late 50s, has just lost his wife and is forced to face his own survival issues--if he could only drive a car on an Los Angeles freeway, he might even be able to get a job, which would reduce his own guilt about being a burden to his son. With a tremendous desire to be responsible for himself and his family, Michael nonetheless must confront the conflicting moral codes represented by two epople who are close to him: Avo, the blow-hard who defends his honor with force; and Ana, Michael' s fiancee, who continually goads him into facing the fact that maturity doesn't always include getting one's own way. In Michael's struggle to fit in, he faces not only what it means to be on the outside, but also, what price it costs to gain entrance into respectability.—Sujit R. Varma