Out on parole after eight years inside, Bill Hayward returns home to find his now eleven and fifteen-year-old sons, Jimmy and Dean, abandoned by their mother and fending for themselves. Unwilling to play Dad, an uncaring Bill is determined to move on. Dean reluctantly forces his dad to stay, but when Jimmy finds himself in trouble with Bill's old drug-dealing mates, Bill has to decide what kind of dad he really wants to be--a good one or a free one.