Louis De Coco, nicknamed Chubby because of his physical build, and Tommy De Coco are middle aged brothers who live by the unofficial code of the immigrant - in their case, Italian - working class in the Bronx, which includes male bonding through machismo, and the wife's place being in the home, getting married to a good girl only after sowing one's wild oats with fun girls. They both work in the construction industry, and are devoted to each other and their collective families in doing what they see best for this collective. Although some of the manifestations are "above the surface", there are many problems within their families bubbling underneath the surface. Tommy and his wife Maria's youngest son, adolescent Albert, has stopped eating, with Tommy and Maria and the family not understanding or taking ownership of his anorexia, anxiety within their family collective the cause. Their oldest son Tommy Jr.