In south inner-city Dublin in 1985, Robert Lawlor is struggling with his architecture practice and his marriage, and drinks and smokes to excess. At a family meeting, he announces that in order to save money he is taking his youngest son Conor out of his expensive fee-paying school and moving him to a Christian Brothers school, Synge Street CBS, which Robert asserts is of equally high repute. Conor's elder brother Brendan ribs him about the change as well as about the state of the family unit.