Over-Under, Sideways-Down explores the politics of everyday life in America through the experiences of a working-class couple, Roy and Jan Stannis, who live with their two children in a cramped tract home. An assembly line worker in a steel plant, Roy entertains the fantasy of moving from the local semi-pro baseball team, for which he plays third base, to the big leagues. “It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” he figures. However, when Roy loses both his job (by coming to the defense of a black coworker) and his one chance to impress an interested baseball scout, his life begins to unravel.