A man reflects on his childhood growing up in Memphis during the Great Depression, specifically his relationship with his best friend. As he remembers his friend's odd relationship with his family, unusual approach to romance, and alluring charm, he begins to realize how different they were and still are.

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.

When a middle-aged man reconnects with his uncle, he recalls their time spent on his grandmother's estate during his childhood in the 1920s.

A young man is invited to a close family friend's opera performance; years later, the man reconnects with the singer and begins to uncover several family secrets.