In the hospital recovering from a stab wound, 15-year-old Dennis Foley has far too much time on his hands. He can only stare at the ceiling tiles and study the beige painted walls for so long. Foley is forced to confront his past as examine the path that almost led to his death. Chicago's Southside neighborhoods of the 1960s and '70s spring to life in this me-fic (part memoir-part fiction), where Foley intertwines stories about his drunken father's escapades, alongside stories about the strange solitude he seems to enjoy during his 10-day stay in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit--where he befriends an old man dying of cancer.