Após a morte do avô, Jake, de 13 anos, vê de repente a família mudar-se de Manhattan para a antiga casa onde o pai cresceu, em Brooklyn. Aí, Jake faz um amigo, o carismático Tony, cuja mãe, Leonor, uma costureira chilena, dirige sozinha a loja da cave.
Os pais de Jake, Brian, um actor em dificuldades e Kathy, uma psicoterapeuta, não demoram a pedir a Leonor um grande aumento de renda da loja. Para Leonor, a nova renda é insustentável e inicia-se uma disputa entre os adultos.
Angela and Jessie are best friends intent on taking a wild beach trip, but when their roommate loses all their money in a drug scam, the girls—blissfully stoned—go to increasingly daring and absurd lengths to get it back.
A young playwright spends his last cent to pay the past-due rent for the pretty dancer who's his boarding house next-door neighbor. Soon after, he winds up at a gambling club, where he wins big - just before a police raid.
June never leaves her apartment, which has a view of an advertising sign of a knight in shining armor. She is two weeks behind in her rent and believes that if she leaves the apartment, the landlord will never let her back in. The only way she gets food is when her friend, singer Earlayne Schools, brings it to her. One evening June sees Hal, a tap-dancing sign painter, painting over her knight. She explains her predicament, and he does his best to help her out.