The best day of Pixie's life was the day she won the Miss New Jersey beauty pageant. Her dreams stretched in front of her: a Miss America could go anywhere be anyone. Fame and fortune were at her fingertips - until she fell pregnant. Now the mother of a teenager on her second marriage she is beset by memories of her glittering career.

Ezra her sixteen-year-old son notices none of this. It's the start of the long summer holiday and his main preoccupation is the girl next door and his quest to lose his virginity. Engaging and honest he tells his own story of what it means to be the child of a woman whose American dream went nowhere.

Soulful and mordantly funny in the vein of American Beauty Pixie and Ezra unfold a story of the American family that is at once touching and fiercely honest.