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.

After a tumultuous and difficult upbringing, a woman contemplates whether or not she should give up her newborn child for adoption.

Though numerous social workers try to step in, a co-dependent mother and son bounce from city to city, in search of a place where they can be together at all times.

The impact of an absent father emerges in the gruesome stories of a young daughter as her alcoholic mother listens and reflects on the struggles of raising her alone.

Thirteen-year-old Angelle gets into a car accident when her drunken father begs her to drive home in his stead. Later, she must take the witness stand in court and decide her family's future with her testimony.

When the father of her baby overdoses, a young mother with a crippling drug addiction hits rock bottom much faster than she thought possible. All the while, she must take care of her son and figure out how to survive.

An overprotective mother attempts to get her teenage daughter to tell her why she is so upset. In an erratic and panicked conversation, the daughter reveals an unimaginable problem they must tackle together.

A father driving his son's girlfriend home at night takes a deliberately wrong turn and stops on a back road, where he demands she stop seeing his son. To counter his ultimatum, the girl threatens to accuse the father of sexual assault before leaving the car and running home through the night.

As she begins to feel that her boyfriend is trying to create reasons for her to leave him, a woman tries to understand his difficult past as a child in the American foster care system.

A single father overcome with grief from his wife's death attempts to find solace through media attention, but consequently becomes less and less aware of the needs of his son.