In 1974, a Boston Irish cop confronts fierce social pressure after being assigned to protect black high school students as they are bused into all-white South Boston High.

Three retired sea captains living together in genteel squalor. They scheme to improve their fortunes by having one of them solicit a bride through an ad in a Boston newspaper. The loser of a coin toss must get married and take in the other two as boarders. But upon the arrival of the Nantucket woman selected from the applicants, the captains get cold feet.