Juan is a teenager in a gang-infested LA barrio. When his Uncle Manny invites him out on a joy ride, the situation goes bad. Juan is accused of a crime he did not commit. Now Juan is caught between loyalty to his uncle and the Law.
Juan Garcia is a boy on the threshold of manhood living in a gang-controlled neighborhood. His role models could not be further apart: his older sister Angie, a single mom, struggling to gain a foothold in the white corporate world and his uncle Manny, an ex-gang member, who has fallen into an acting career playing gang bangers since his release from prison. With the future on his doorstep, Juan, like most boys, can only think of girls and is unaware of the judicial system's hard line stance against gang affiliation.
A former street thug returns to his Philadelphia home after a stint in the military. Back on his home turf, he once again finds himself tangling with the mob boss who was instrumental in his going off to be a soldier.
In post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles, tensions erupt when the lives of a Brentwood housewife, her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple converge during a 36-hour period.
Flimp and Sam are both outcasts in the Oklahoma town of Oiltown, but Jewish Sam idolises macho Latino Flimp. When they hear that a wealthy man has moved into a local house, they decide to check it out. Things go wrong, and soon they are on the run from the FBI...