The two men are different in their life choices but joined by family ties and a close personal relationship. One of the men is Eric Trules (director of the film), a published poet and performance artist, and a professor at the University of Southern California. He is the pride of his family. The other man is his uncle, Harvey Rosenberg, a convicted criminal and a member of organized crime, who has spent most of his life in and out of prison for a variety of charges, from assault with a deadly weapon to commercial burglary. He has been the shame of, and a burden to, his family his entire life. Eric and Harvey share a life of astonishingly similar parallels, along with a willingness to flout normal societal conventions.

During the film, these similarities are revealed as Eric is also charged with a felony for commercial burglary for his extensive, illegal use of a Hollywood Studio's copying and printing facility. At the same time Harvey, after getting out of prison and going straight, has a life-changing spiritual awakening through a 12-step recovery program. In a bizarre twist, however, Harvey is suddenly indicted for the contract murder of actor Frank Christi, a crime he allegedly committed in Los Angeles 10 years before.