In 1940, author Richard Wright turns to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paul Green to help adapt his best-selling book, Native Son, into a Broadway play. Days from opening night, they differ over a single page of the script.
Young Cal believes he sees subliminal messages in television static. His dad Ray spends countless nights looking up, convinced that a UFO he saw as a child will return. When his wife Tess convinces him to tend to Cal and his family instead, Ray discovers something deeper.
