Louis De Coco, nicknamed Chubby because of his physical build, and Tommy De Coco are middle aged brothers who live by the unofficial code of the immigrant - in their case, Italian - working class in the Bronx, which includes male bonding through machismo, and the wife's place being in the home, getting married to a good girl only after sowing one's wild oats with fun girls. They both work in the construction industry, and are devoted to each other and their collective families in doing what they see best for this collective. Although some of the manifestations are "above the surface", there are many problems within their families bubbling underneath the surface. Tommy and his wife Maria's youngest son, adolescent Albert, has stopped eating, with Tommy and Maria and the family not understanding or taking ownership of his anorexia, anxiety within their family collective the cause. Their oldest son Tommy Jr., nicknamed Stony, has recently graduated from high school and thus has to figure out what to do with his life. His father and uncle's mentality has been inbred into him, and as such he has been dating a loose girl named Cheri since he is not yet at the stage of settling down. However, Stony doesn't want to be an electrician like his father which is what is expected of him, but wants to work with kids in some aspect. A sympathetic doctor offers him a job working at the hospital as a children's recreational assistant in part so that he can test the waters. Stony not following in his father's footsteps does not sit well with Tommy, especially as he sees working with kids a woman's job. Stony has to figure out how to reconcile the fact that he still loves his parents yet does not want to end up like them, which is what will happen if he follows Tommy's predestined life for him. Stony may get a better picture of what to do through the support of his new girlfriend Annette, who has gone through growing up experiences of her own to get a good picture of who she truly is as a person.