Bulletproof Heart is set in 1989, New Jersey, where Madonna is the queen of MTV, Downtown Julie Brown rules the day, Ricky Ratchman rules the night, and punk rock is slowly evolving into something else - into EMO - into grunge, and the world around Lena and Ant is changing too. Lena is a 2nd generation German American who discovers the truth about her grandfather; he was a Russian living in the Ukraine right before WWI. That he had spent time in a Russian Siberian labor camp before being sent back home; to eventually flee the Ukraine to Germany, where he met Lena's grandmother. While Lena is discovering her roots, the boy across the street, Antoine, is trying to connect with Lena. Antoine (Ant) is a 1st generation Ukrainian who had to leave his country after his parents' death to live with his sister in the States. While the two are trying to feel whole in their own life, they discover that the only way to be complete is to be together.