Divorced mom Tracy Cross raises her 12-year-old son, Christopher, in Key West in 1969 around the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing. A waitress, she becomes a stripper to support herself and Chris.The film includes a scene where fourteen-year-old actor David Arnott appears nude (though shot from behind).
        Chris is also working at part-time jobs to help pay the bills. He is upset when he finds out about his mother's new job. One of the boy's jobs is to deliver fish to a local seafood restaurant, but it turns out the man who runs the restaurant is involved in a drug-smuggling ring in which the drugs are hidden inside fish. Chris steals some of the drugs and tries to sell them to earn enough money so that his mother can quit her dancing job.
        A stranger, Joe, comes to town and strikes up a relationship with Tracy. This further disturbs her son, who seeks out his father, John Cross, a military veteran so troubled from his Vietnam experiences that he is now a gardener in a monastery.
        Joe turns out to be a law-enforcement undercover agent, working to bring down the drug ring. His relationship with Tracy and her son complicates matters as the time comes to make the arrest.