Sixteen-year-old Bert Rosenbaum is living in the Bronx with his family when his brother, Philip, has his first psychotic breakdown. Philip communicates with extraterrestrials through radio stations only he can hear, discovers a homosexual plot to control the world, and burns Bert's cherished Dylan albums to protect him from evil subliminal messages. Haunted by the shadow of his brother's madness, Bert graduates from college, lands a job in the Department of Sewers, and settles into a small, dingy Manhattan apartment.