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

As a boy grows to adulthood in the years encompassing WWII, and his understanding of the world changes, so too does his perception of his schoolteacher father evolve from respectable teacher to embarrassing clown to free-spirited man.

In an attempt to impress his emotionally distant father, a boy ridicules his mother, who has loved him unconditionally even in his father's absence. Wracked with guilt, he yearns for her forgiveness - only to find that she does not hold it against him.

At a Blues Festival, a fourteen-year-old boy talks to his father for the first time but does not reveal who he is.

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.

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 nine-year-old boy reflects on the heroes he's identified in his life, from religious figures to his relatives, while he and his father drive home on a snowy night.

A jobless father attempts his best to care for his family, but when he begins to take his young son to play games and music at pubs, the son develops a destructive habit.

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.

In 1940s Louisiana, a young boy watches his father try to combat the racist injustice rampant in their town.