The movie consists of several stories that interweave during two days in Los Angeles. It involves a collection of inter-related characters, including a black police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the distracted district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with racist cop, and a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop.