SYNOPSIS:

Forty-something year old MALE, TED LANDERS, drives off into the night in his 1969 White Mustang after tenderly tucking ex-wife, JACKIE into bed. Suspicious of his abrupt departure, Jackie goes to their son’s bedroom to shockingly discover what Ted has removed from a hiding place there. ONE MONTH EARLIER we see Ted as a likeable and popular ex-Boxer who, behind the hand whispers has it that he is in the early stages of pugilistic dementia. But Ted can’t let go of the glory days. On this day he engages in an enthusiastic sparring session with an up-and-coming 20-something year old PROSPECT. Post workout, Ted departs the gym for Rising Sun Drug Treatment Center and long-time friend, BLAKE TUCKER, former Priest, now Director of this Substance Abuse Facility. Photos and newspaper clippings portray history between the two men. Ted leaves Rising Sun for vacant three-story rundown residence at 666 Pearl Street and delivers a package to SAL MALGERI, frustrated comedian and owner of neighborhood teen hangout, Sal’s Pizzeria. Ted is caught off-guard by twenty-something year old MALE on premises and witness to the drop. During a Dedication Ceremony at Rising Sun, Jackie, local Newspaper Writer wears her business face when dealing with Ted, her ex. We meet son, KRAIG LANDERS and Blake’s daughter SHARIFA. That evening, we witness verbal and moral exchanges in a neighborhood watch group. Later, Kraig is gunned down during a drive-by shooting at one of the city’s most notorious drug stores, and Jackie is awakened in Blake’s bed to hear the news. We discover that KURTIS, Police Officer and neighborhood watch group participant is the shooter. A ghostly stroll through her deceased son Kraig’s bedroom leads Jackie to a large bag of white powder. She calls Ted for moral support, interrupting his roll in the sheets with a local female bartender. Ted convinces Jackie she has nothing to worry about, but later, recalling the Opening Scene’s platonic sleepover, Ted sneaks off in the middle of the night after surreptitiously removing the bag Jackie had not yet mentioned during their earlier dialogue. Discovering the bag gone, Jackie knows that Ted was involved with sale of drugs using their son as a mule. What Jackie doesn’t know and we discover now, is that one of playboy Ted’s sex toys is none other than Blake’s 15 year old daughter, Sharifa who shows up at Ted’s apartment simultaneously in a search for emotional support she needs after Kraig’s shooting, and is turned away by the otherwise preoccupied Ted. Enraged to the point she sees turning Ted in as too lenient, Jackie turns to Blake who is having his own problems when Sal, Rising Sun’s largest benefactor, is arrested on distribution charges. Although his first instinct is to hit the bottle, Blake knows he needs to “practice what he preaches,” and seeks answers at Alcoholics Anonymous when his sanity, his sense of right and wrong are at odds with his emotional rage. Several Police Officers, outraged over Jackie’s headlined Editorial that depicts them as “not worth the money we pay them,” decide to take the law into their own hands with a more vigilante mind-set. ANDRE, a BLACK MALE TEEN Client of Rising Sun, admits to Blake during counseling, it was cool “getting high with Ted,” confirming Ted as the city’s drug kingpin. Blake sets out to find him. Sal hears the news, panics and kidnaps Sharifa to drug distribution center at 666 Pearl Street. Blake and Ted argue morality. A struggle ensues. Blake beats the ex-boxer to the punch and proceeds toward Pearl Street but is slowed enroute by street repair crews. Ted arrives at their mutual destination first, is able to rescue Sharifa, only to meet a deadly fate of his own.