Juan is a Cuban immigrant living in 1980's Miami. Because of his dark skin, he doesn't look like most Cubans in the city, and he is also not an African-American. To escape social alienation, he successfully impersonates a cliche identity of an African-American drug dealer, which elevates him in his surrounding society. His other identity, however, is an empathetic and somewhat gentle individual not affected by collective mentality. This identity conflict becomes a mental connection between him and the main character, Little, who Juan gravitated to after seeing him bullied by a herd of kids. He throws a raft to the kid and together with his girlfriend/partner Theresa they become his surrogate parents. Decades later, determined to get away from his painful childhood memories, Little inherits Juan's drug dealer identity, which he mistakenly believes is his true self, but Juan is no longer there to sort things out for him.