Jennifer’s mother eventually seems to turn around her life and marries a man with a stable job. However, one evening, Jennifer’s stepfather gets drunk and tries to crawl into bed with Jennifer. Naturally, Jennifer is traumatized by this behavior and becomes extremely upset when her mother tries to play it down. So, Jennifer runs away from home and gets involved with drugs. She turns around her life, though, gets a job and tracks down her father.
Jennifer cleans him up and makes her father get a regular job. John lies to her about getting some kind of office job, however, when he only got a job mowing grass at a small community airport and moving the planes around with a small tractor. Jennifer cuts him some slack, though, because she realizes her father is embarrassed about getting a manual labor job. On the side, John tries to work a small business involving a pants-stretching device. The business goes sideways, so John robs a bank but gets caught and sentenced to a 15-year stint in prison.
Jennifer now realizes her father is just an unreliable dreamer and a con man. She decides to have nothing further to do with him and pursues a career in journalism. Several years later, she’s working at an alternative newspaper and having some success when, suddenly, her father shows up and tries to make amends.