It's been thirty years since a Vietnam War injury left Howard Kapostash unable to speak, read, or write. He can communicate only with sounds and gestures, which makes him appear slow and disturbed. But inside his head, Howie is the same man he always was, longing for Sylvia, his high school sweetheart. Then Howie's solitude comes to an abrupt end: Sylvia is being forced into rehab and needs him to care for her nine-year-old son.