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Walt Kowalski, a retired Polish American Ford factory worker and Korean War veteran, has recently been widowed after his wife of 50 years, Dorothy, passed away. He is a difficult man, unloved by his two sons and their families, which causes problems after his wife's death. His neighborhood in Highland Park, Michigan, formerly populated by working-class white families, is now dominated by poor Asian immigrants, and gang violence is commonplace. He vehemently turns down a suggestion to move to a retirement community, and lives alone with his labrador retriever, Daisy. Father Janovich, the young Catholic priest in whom his wife had confided, tries to comfort him with empty platitudes, but Walt openly disdains the much younger, inexperienced man.