 "Tropic of Orange" revolves around seven distinct, yet interrelated characters and story lines (listed in bold below).The story covers the span of seven days, with each day getting its own unit, and with each character getting one chapter for each day.In Los Angeles, Japanese-American television news executive, Emi, and her lover, Latino journalist Gabriel Balboa, are chasing newsworthy stories of local disaster, including an apocalyptic standstill on the Harbor Freeway and the creation of a new urban social order by homeless population moving into the abandoned cars.