Synopsis/Details
RONEN (14), Jewish, shut-off, depressed, is saved by MARLON (14), cowboy hat, cowboy boots, with a gun, from bullies in the schoolyard. Marlon follows Ronen home and reveals his gun to be fake. He tries to establish a friendship with Ronen, but Ronen wants nothing of it. At school, Marlon notices a girl Ronen likes, MADELINE, Jewish. He pushes Ronen into the girl's change room after Madeline goes in, and holds the door shut to pressure him to talk to her, causing Ronen to like him even less. Ronen gets locked in his locker by the same bullies from the beginning, and Marlon stays by his side while the janitor goes to the local hardware store to get a bolt cutter. Ronen warms up to Marlon, and Marlon makes a vow that he'll help Ronen get Madeline.
Ronen builds a relationship with Madeline with Marlon's help and lands a dinner date. Madeline gets shaken and distances herself from Ronen on the date. Ronen encounters an early thirties woman several times he doesn't know. She eventually reveals herself to him as his mother who he's never known and thought was dead. They get acquainted. Ronen tries to strengthen his relationship with Madeline, but her father boycotts him from talking to her out of a grudge he has with Ronen's grandfather. Ronen tells his grandfather, who he lives with, about this. His grandfather sympathizes with Madeline's father who lost his wife and felt abandoned by him when he left his position as a rabbi soon after it happened. Ronen's grandfather also tells Ronen his mother used to be a promising art student who got into drugs and had Ronen as a teenager. Soon after, he expelled her from living with him as she proved to be a bad influence. He also directs his attention to a painting of an olive tree in their living room which Ronen's mother painted and talks about its symbolism. Ronen's mother asks Ronen to leave with him to Texas where she's been living so they can live together as mother and son.
Ronen, grown in courage, stands up to Madeline's father and plants a kiss on Madeline while on a park bench which implies they're dating. Ronen's grandfather passes away from old age, and Ronen makes a decision that he won't leave with his mother but will stay in his hometown to live with his aunt, near Madeline and his best friend Marlon.
