Poor Julius Dickman! He has a boatload of issues, many worries and concerns. His live-with girlfriend, Naomi, regularly tongue-lashes him. He has a bad stutter and claustrophobia that often leads to uncomfortable panic attacks. He has chronic insomnia, in which he pops awake and immediately starts worrying and ruminating. He has no real profession. And now his widowed father, Herbert, the renowned classical actor, has retired from his long theater career after playing King Lear, the big role he waited all his life to do, and is behaving very strangely. Julius wants to help, to be as good a son to Herbert as Edgar, in disguise as Poor Tom, was to his father in Lear. And he'd like, too, to be a good father-figure to poor Benji, Naomi's put-upon twelve-year-old son, if he can. Julius aspires to be a mensch. But how?