Ben Crosby, suburban gas station owner struggles through the gas crisis, desperately trying to get through it, to keep it all together, to live with the choices he's made, to survive one more day.

Frustrated when network brass reject his sitcom idea, producer Pierre Delacroix pitches the worst idea he can think of in an attempt to get fired: a 21st century minstrel show. The network not only airs it, but it becomes a smash hit.