As Alice's Diner celebrates its 25th anniversary, the denizens of the well-worn coffee shop seem a happy and close-knit group. But just under the surface, the needs and resentments of this band of misfits are bubbling over like the hot oil in the fry cooker. When Alice meets with disaster on the night of the party, it doesn't take long for these friends to turn against each other as they each try to gain the upper hand to hold on to their hard scrambled lives. Ex-con Benno, Alice's chief cook and sometimes lover, keeps the place running under Alice's watchful eye. Scotty, who came to Alice's straight from juvie hall, trying to rob the place until Alice took pity on him and turned the erstwhile robber into Benno's assistant. And there's Joe, the delivery guy stuck in a bad marriage and a boring job, looking to make a big score to change his life. These three get caught up in trying to wrest control of Alice's, and of their own lives, but all of these strivers will find that the price comes too high, in unexpected ways; that in life, the outcome of choices that aren't clear end up hard scrambled.