Eric is a former hockey player who is now a sportscaster. He and Sam, a lawyer, live together quietly in their home in Toronto. Family and friends know they are gay, but they don't make a big deal out of it. In fact, Eric is attempting to stay semi-closeted.

Then one day, they learn that Sam's brother's ex-girlfriend has died, naming the brother as guardian of her eleven-year-old son, Scot. Since the brother can't be found, Sam convinces Eric that they should take in Scot for what is expected to be a short time. Eric doesn't like kids, and Scot is especially hard for him to deal with, because Scot is a flamboyant, androgynous sissy. One of the terms used to describe Scot in the press notes is "budding queen." He reeks of scented hand cream. He wears his mother's charm bracelet and makeup. He revels in musicals and Christmas carols. In short, Scot is more gay than Eric and Sam.

All of this is very hard for Eric to take. He tries to toughen Scot up by putting him in a hockey league and teaching him how to fight. (Eric racked up lots of penalty minutes when he played.) But Scot is comfortable with who he is. The problem is that Eric continues to be uncomfortable with who he is.

In one scene, Eric tells Sam that he thinks Scot is gay. (Well, duh!) But he goes on to say that Scot was already gay before they knew him, so they are off the hook. It isn't their fault. This says a great deal about how Eric has failed to come to grips with his orientation. He's comfortable being gay within the walls of his home, but everywhere else he hides that.

This is a film about family. How can that word be defined? Must there be some genetic connection, or is the power that binds families together something else? As the film progresses, we see Eric, Sam and Scot slowly become a family. What holds them together is mutuality—a caring for one another and giving to one another. In the midst of loss and abandonment, Scot has been pushed into the lives of two strangers. It doesn't happen without struggle and mistakes, but these two men slowly begin to fill the hole in Scot's life. At the same time, Scot begins to show Eric the joy that can be found in accepting who you are and living without fear of how others might think of you.

The term "family values" often refers to a very limited idea of what constitutes a family. This film may not fit into that narrow definition, but it is certainly a film that values family—even if that family does not fit a particular paradigm of a "normal" family. Just as Scot is a unique person who hears not only a different drummer, but an entirely different band, so too do families all have their own ways of connecting and maintaining the love that holds them together.