n the sweltering summer of 1994, Giuliani is scouring New York City within an inch of its life, hip-hop is permeating white youth culture, and a pot-dealing loser kid, Luke Shapiro, is trying to figure out how to solve his parents%u2019 insolvency, beat depression, and get laid before pushing off to college. Luckily he%u2019s got a nifty deal with a psychiatrist, Dr. Squires, who trades him therapy sessions for weed. It happens that the oddball doctor%u2019s marriage is crumbling, so the two%u2014one in late adolescence, the other in late middle-age%u2014embark on messy passages into new life stages. As Luke falls for a classmate who just happens to be Squires%u2019s daughter, the summer heats up, and he follows doctor%u2019s orders, learning to coexist with pain and make it part of him, rather than let it become his downfall.