UNSTRUNG HEROES centers around Steven Lidz, the son of Sid (John Turturro), a distracted inventor who "believes in documentation" and empirical data. Steven is closer to his warm-hearted mother, the emotional center of the family. When she becomes ill, he goes to live with his father's two brothers (Michael Richards and Maury Chaikin), both borderline (and sometimes more than borderline) mentally ill. They are hoarders, paranoid, and delusional. But they love Steven very much, and see in him a strength and ability to be great that he finds very comforting. They rename him "Franz" because they think it suits him better than Steven. Franz picks up some of his uncles' peculiarities, but also draws strength from them. They encourage him to connect to his heritage by studying for his bar mitzvah. And his uncle's fascination with objects inspires him to hold on to a bit of his mother by collecting small items that make him feel close to her. When she dies, he retrieves hours of "documentation" (film of experiments and family home movies) from the garbage. He and his father watch them together, and, with the uncles, begin to document the family again.