Stephen is a hard drinking, aging, San Francisco beat cop. He’s scared of a future that is closing in on him with retirement.  Gripped by his anxiety, he’s been losing emotional contact with his wife and children. His wife, Pauline,  and children have begun to disrespect him and he knows it.  In his bitterness, he feels helpless to do anything about it. He feels his life is like the dilapidated Victorian house he lives in and which he can no longer afford to repair.

But despite his problems, Stephen was not without a shining point on his otherwise darkening map of life. His handsome 18 year- old son, Peter, is a tough high school football safety, a legitimate college prospect. And when his ne’er-do-well younger brother proposes to invest in a West Portal District bar, Stephen perks up.  For once, he sees a purpose in his post-retirement despite his wife’s complaint about him getting in the booze business.

While Stephen and his wife, Pauline, navigate their marriage with recrimination and seasoned love, they don’t notice their son’s problem. Peter is deeply and ominously in love with a girl who is breaking up with him. The boy’s life ends when, finding his father’s patrol pistol, Peter shoots himself in despair over his lost girlfriend.

A month after Peter’s death, at a Thanksgiving dinner, the family sits somberly at a table when the doorbell rings. Representative players of Peter’s football team, present to Stephen, the championship game football signed by all the players.  The stage darkens with all the actors in silence.

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