In the movie "American Beauty", Lester Burnham is a very sad man who is unhappy with his job, his marriage, and everything about how his life has turned out, until suddenly he finds passion for life again when he meets his daughter's beautiful friend Angela. He begins to turn his life around and he must decide how far he wants to take his infatuation with this lovely teenager. Meanwhile, Lester's wife Carolyn and his daughter Jane are each having a life crisis of their own. His wife is having an affair with a businessman and his daughter is having a strange, complicated relationship with the weird, artistic boy next door, Ricky. Things become more complicated as Jane and Ricky begin making a video project together, and Ricky's father becomes confused about Ricky's relationship with the Burnham family. Still, the members of the Burnham family each have to work through their own problems while still remaining a family and finding satisfaction while trying to build for themselves a modern American life with meaning.