Before leaving his home to fight in the Vietnam War, a young Hawaiian has to decide what to do about his favorite pet pigeon. While deliberating, he's forced to confront the responsibility he bears for his sister's mental instability.

After his grandson gets fired from yet another job, an old man watches the boy resort to a deceitful scheme in order to make money, causing tension to run rampant through the household.

When a fourteen-year-old boy moves with his family to a farm town, he reads a book that leads him to have a crisis of faith and he begins to question what really happens after death.