1983: The state-of-the-art mall Dandelion Crossing opens to excited shoppers in a rapidly changing suburb. Is the mall an eyesore - or a blessing?
Fourteen stories take center stage as the Christmas season gets underway. There's Nathan, a gay arcade manager who forges a tentative friendship with a Vietnam veteran; and Ellen, an elderly widow who ventures to the New Wave mall salon to receive a perm from a stylist she's never met. There's Carol, a timid waitress who suspects a little boy has been physically abused; and Enrique, an ex-con and aspiring chef who falls for a helpful bookstore clerk.
Dandelion Crossing shows how people of various ages, races, and backgrounds live, love, struggle, and survive during this tumultuous era of Reagan's America - a flashy age of pastel leg warmers and neon MTV.