Richard Brubaker is an eleven-year-old who loves race cars and his tough, no-nonsense mother's brownies. After enduring her own abusive childhood, his single mom is determined to protect him against all the bad influences in life. But when she asks Richard to take a bowl of chili over to the next-door neighbor, Ned Henderson, who also happens to be his best friend's dad, Edith has no idea what she has just helped instigate. Richard's friend,...