Michael Haddad, the teenage son of Palestinian immigrants, comes
of age during the tumultuous sixties in his family's neighborhood
grocery store
in New York City.
In 1967 Michael maneuvers through the working-class neighborhood
delivering groceries and enters the homes and lives of his customers.
He's
confronted by the violence of racist bullies and falls for the radical
college
coed who teaches him about sex, love, and protest. Michael grieves with
the
mother whose only son died in the Vietnam War and is embraced by the
first
black couple who move into the neighborhood. They all shape him, and
through
the conflict of hate, acts of kindness, and his sexual awakening,
Michael
struggles to figure out who this dutiful son of an immigrant family is.
Michael's life
is buffeted by the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr, and the death, two
months
later, of Bobby Kennedy. His girlfriend opens his eyes to the ongoing
struggle to
test national ideals against the growing diversity of America. But when
Michael experiences a sudden personal tragedy, he must
learn to get past his fears, come to terms with his heritage, and set
himself
free.