The film is set in an African-American ghetto in Watts, a district of Los Angeles, in the mid-1970s. At the center of the plot is Stan, a sensitive dreamer who becomes increasingly numb under the strain of having to work in a slaughterhouse. Plagued by money worries, he only occasionally finds some respite in moments of simple beauty: when he holds a coffee cup against his cheek and feels the warmth; when he dances to radio music with his wife or holds his daughter in his arms. The film offers no solutions, but shows life as it is - sometimes terribly gloomy, then again filled with unearthly joy and subtle humor.