Meet the players: Mike, the protagonist, is a friendly and engaging man who desperately wants to have a loving, or at least friendly relationship with his twenty-two-year-old daughter, Zoe. He also wants to get his life back on track, but frequently gets in his own way. Scotty and Joe are Mike's two best friends since grade school: Scotty was a chubby red-haired kid who was picked on by the school bullies, now an easygoing, affable gent who wanted to be a landscaper but ended up building houses. Joe was the peacemaker; a couple of quiet words from him sent the bullies away, their fists loosened, their sneers faded, their feet dragging. Of the three boys, Joe is the one who realized his dream: he married his high school sweetheart, Kathy, and created a successful business, a bar which they named Joe's Place. Zoe, Mike's twenty-two-year-old daughter, had been programmed by her mother to hate her father. In today's world, she wants nothing to do with him. She's already a senior teller at a local bank, and if rumors are to be believed, in line for a promotion.