Gino is a closeted gay man living with his lover in the heart of San Francisco's Castro district while using a different address. He is hiding both his boyfriend and his lifestyle from a large San Francisco family that is pressuring him to get married, even as Skip, his hapless lover vainly demands that Gino acknowledge their relationship. The setting is post-Stonewall San Francisco after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. Worldly, urbane San Francisco is actually a small city and Gino's Uncle Tony, the patriarch of the family, turns out to be Dr. Anthony Gigli, director of the institute where Skip works as an assistant to his insufferably stupid and cruel boss, Bernard Biebeler, who is seeking a way to terminate his employment. Skip and Gino quickly learn that their closet is in danger of buckling under the set of contradictory opposites that lay siege to their small universe.