Roger 'Raj' Thomas has graduated from the University of Southern California, and become a fledgling writer. He and his wife Nadine, a social worker, move in to his old home in Watts (given to him by his mother, Mabel, now remarried and living in Phoenix, Arizona). His sister Dee is away at college. Childhood friend Dwayne Nelson has become a computer programmer, while Freddie 'Rerun' Stubbs is a used-car salesman. The old soda shop hangout, Rob's Place, has gone out of business and left abandoned. Reminded of his youth, and seeing an opportunity, Raj and Shirley Wilson, who used to wait tables there, decide to buy the business together, renaming it Rob's.