A sister remains a faithful friend to her brother as he navigates the strict parenting of their military father, spending his youth fighting in Vietnam, and his return home after the war as a changed man living apart from his family and forging his own path in life for the first time.

A young boy grows up avoiding his abusive mother and idolizing two men in his life: his father and a boy in his class. But when both of his heroes betray him, he turns to his mother for comfort.

A series of vignettes about various sons along a family tree.

When a violent father receives a call from someone who claims to be his biological brother, he must re-evaluate what family means to him.

During a Boy Scout camping trip, a father and son find some bonding time. The father particularly finds solace in the intimacy he feels towards his son during the increased interaction.

An old man looks back on his boyhood idolization of a soldier he sees in the parade - until his hero is forced off the pedestal after trying to steal a prized horse from the boy's father.

When the father of an accomplished boxer bets on one of his son's matches, the son loses and the family finds themselves in a deluge of debt. Soon, they are involved with dangerous mobsters and a world full of fixed fights and broken deals.

A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

A stay-at-home dad with a wife who works in Manhattan attempts to find a sense of control by tenderly disciplining his young son after he puts himself in danger.

When all the able-bodied men of a small town in Oregon get sent to the war front in Iraq, two teenage boys are left behind. They vent their frustration, seek revenge on those who have wronged them, and ultimately grow up to be like their fathers, despite their fathers' absence.