Devoted. Caring. Dedicated. Those are the words that lovingly come to Sammie Jr's mind whenever he describes his deceased father, Samuel "Street" Jamieson. His sudden and tragic death pushed the young Sammie and the rest of his family into emotional and financial upheaval when they are forced from the comforts and tranquility of suburban living to the chaos and poverty surrounding the hard streets of Chicago. Player. Liar. Deceiver. Those are the words Sammie's brothers, Terrance and Malik, use when describing the same father that Sammie so fondly remembers and still yearns for. Instead of grieving their father's untimely death, the two brothers dwell on the fact that, as youngsters, their father walked out on them all, leaving their mother heartbroken. As young men now, their mother sees an anger and bitterness in them that reminds her of Street. And as a chain of events start to take an ugly turn, that suppressed rage is given an opportunity to manifest itself, potentially shattering the lives of a tenuous family. How can three brothers think so differently of one and the same man and will their differences ever be reconciled? And how will each deal with their adverse circumstances--for Sammie, will he learn to live without his father and his comforting past and for Terrance and Malik, will they take a different path in life than that of their father, who seemed to destroy so many?