Barlow is a hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, long-haired, and deeply unhappy aspiring writer who pulls a dozen rejection slips out of his mailbox every day while trying to get through his life with some semblance of purpose.

Vietnam veteran Leon Barlow is struggling as a writer, and his personal life isn't much better. His unsympathetic ex-wife Marilyn doesn't approve of his visits with his two children, and he has problems with alcohol. Yet even when Leon manages to catch up on alimony and child support payments, things in his life seem to decline further, until a sudden tragedy catches him off guard.—Sujit R. Varma