The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor, a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton.

In the mid-nineties, a young woman's choice between her life and the accidental life she's pregnant with.

It's midwinter in Minneapolis, and rock musician Thomas (Shane Barach) can't seem to commit to girlfriend Jessica (Lara Miklasevics). At a local coffee shop, he runs into Sabina (Rose Mailutha), whom he knows casually from the club scene, and a relationship develops. But responsibilities lurk in the background since he needs to find work, and she must take care of her young son. With a naturalistic style, filmed in 16mm black-and-white, the film recalls Shadows (1959) an independent films of the early '60s.