HONOR, serving as your brother's keeper, getting back on the right path after having swayed -- these are just a few of the values that Beaver embodies as he tries to create a decent life for himself and his brother following his mother's death and his own stint in prison. Younger brother Cande, a teenager who has been left to fend for himself, has been abused by his father while big brother Beaver served time in the state penitentiary. When Beaver returns to the old barrio, various neighbors and friends pitch in to help him and Cande make lives for themselves. But some of the old pitfalls are still present as is the very danger of their abusive father.