In 1980, Gus Perazzo, 30, takes work in Harlem to have time with his mother who has liver cancer. Gusas time plumbing is mostly comic, from his ineptitude to an odd cast of co-workers and tenants. His time with his family, in a world of homemade pasta, loud talk, and never-spoken love, forces him to confront his past, while he helps his mother face her mortality. Three love interests tempt Gus further from his failing marriage: Helen Boisclair, a beautiful Creole he has loved since grammar school, Maritornes MartA-nez, his sexy first girlfriend, and Maggie McGuinnis, a college crush and present chiropractor, who still believes in Gus. During eight intense weeks in New York, Gus Perazzo seeks faith in the possibilities of cure, for his mother, for Harlem, for himself. In facing decay, betrayal, even death, he finds a way to choose a renovation of his own life.