Fourteen-year-old Joey lives with and cares for his sick grandmother, fixing her soup and generally caring for her needs. Upon her death, he moves in with his aunt and her three children, where he feels unwanted and unneeded. He becomes involved in a neighborhood gang that burglarizes apartments of the elderly. When the gang comes down on Joey for failing to perform his responsibilities as a lookout, Joey vows to do burglaries on his own. When entering an apartment through a window, he finds an elderly woman confined to her bed. His feelings for his grandmother and the pattern of care used with her are transferred to the sick woman, and he begins visiting her regularly to make her soup and perform other servies for her. Through her, he meets other elderly apartment dwellers and begins doing things for them as well. He maintains his relationship with the gang and tries to dissuade them from victimizing the elderly, but to no avail. He then devises various ways to help protect the elderly from having their possessions stolen, and to make some money, he starts selling his services and soup to the elderly apartment dwellers.