Nothing in Common

David Basner should be riding the crest of a wave of what is, by most accounts, a successful and happy life achieved in his general confidence in himself. He has just been promoted to an "office with windows" job as creative director at the Chicago advertising firm Boyle, Gargas and Lionel, he sticking it out with them as opposed to getting a job with another firm, which he could easily do, in aiming for adding "Basner" at the end of the company name. In that role, he has just won the Colonial Airlines account, his path to partner which may be dependent on the campaign he develops for Colonial. His easy charm allows him to get almost any woman he wants, even the latest, Cheryl Ann Wayne, which under the circumstances he should not have gotten. And one of his ex-girlfriends, Donna Martin, a professor in experimental theater, remains his best friend and confidante. But riding that crest hits a bump when his mother, Lorraine Basner, without any outward indication beforehand, leaves David's father, Max Basner, after thirty-six years of being together in Lorraine discovering that she and Max have always been incompatible and that David unwittingly acted as their buffer when he was still at home. David has always had a strained relationship with children's apparel salesman Max, but now has to act as the mediator between his parents and caregiver especially to Max who has never taken care of himself. While that strain still exists between him and Max exacerbated by what he learns of his parents' relationship, things take a further turn when it is discovered that Max, who has a ostrich mentality in not wanting to know anything bad, has a potentially life threatening health issue, a manifestation of his diabetes, which ends up trumping all else in David's life.