When you’re fourteen, it’s hard to be patient, especially when it’s your birthday. Yet for Anthony Brooks, any optimism for his future is shattered when his unemployed dad is killed in a robbery attempt at a local convenience story. Understandably, Anthony reacts as any kid might, with anger and withdrawal. Given an opportunity to lash out, he is drawn by some older boys into a plan to rob a neighborhood pizza parlor. Anthony is caught and treatened with juvenille detention until, surprisingly, the pizza parlor owner, a washed up NFL hockey player, offers a compromise.