Hanks Stokes, a young African-American man from Brooklyn, graduates from high school to a job stocking shelves in a liquor store. Most of his friends, however, have graduated to the instant financial gratification of petty drug dealing. Hank yearns to escape his neighborhood and spends his entire savings on lottery tickets hoping to win the $27 Million Dollar Jackpot. His dad, Milt, doesn't set much of an example--working a brain-numbing job at the phone company and soothing the ache of a ruined marriage and a dead-end career as a musician with his constant companion--a bottle of whiskey. Hank seeks his comfort through Joy, his Latina girlfriend, who has her eyes set on the future. As their romance grows--another begins. Hank's father and Florence, Joy's adoptive mother, struggle to deal with their rapidly changing children. In doing so, they find themselves seeing each other in new ways. Their relationship is warm, cautious, and based on the surprise of mutual respect.