The Shim’s Family are a dysfunctional family trying to stay together for the sake of staying together. The family also has quite a few skeletons in their family closet.

The father is a high school teacher that gets no respect at school. His reputation in school and at home takes another hit when a teenage girl films him sleeping in a motel room with her. The father’s secret is that he has been impotent for the last several years. The mother is frustrated not only by her husband’s impotence but from the lack of attention she recieves from all of her family members. The mother’s secret is that she believes she has cancer. Their son is suicidal but lacks the courage to commit suicide. He believes that his real father is someone else and in his past life he was a king. The daughter wonders why people should live with each other when they don’t love each other. When she walks home she wishes she could go into the house next door. The girl’s secret is that she has a crush on one of the teachers at her high school. The spinster aunt lives at the Shim’s house, still attempting to be a successful comic book writer.