| Director | Stephen Verona |
|---|
David Rosen (Strasberg) and his wife Becky (Gordon) are approaching their 50th wedding anniversary in Coney Island, where they have spent most of their married life. But their beloved once-safe neighborhood begins to fall victim to urban blight and crime with house robberies commonplace and the boardwalk rendered unsafe by gangs. A gang leader named Strut demands payment from local merchants for "protection" and uses violent methods to achieve his objectives. David refuses to pay for the "protection" for his restaurant and as a consequence it is firebombed, while many of his neighbors are attacked and his synagogue is desecrated. The couple also contend with Becky's cancer, while their widowed daughter, Florence (Leigh) is in a loveless marriage with a vinyl floor salesman. Peter, Florence's 24-year-old son, wants to be rock star. The Friedmans, an older Jewish couple and best friends of David and Becky, feel besieged by the threat of violent crime and decide to take their own lives.