Floyd, the owner of a bar on the Texas coast, has been depressed for a year after his wife disappeared in a swimming accident. He lives with his senile father-in-law "The General" and is helped by Jimmy, a former asylum inmate, and the good-natured Louise. The bar is rapidly losing money and Charlie wants to buy it cheaply before it becomes publicly known that a nearby bridge is to be built. Louise offers her savings to go into partnership with Floyd, but Floyd decides to sell when he is forced to pay his back taxes.

After a year apart - attending different schools, meeting different people - the guys rent a beach house and vow to make this the best summer ever. As it turns out, whether that will happen or not has a lot to do with the girls. Between the wild parties, outrageous revelations and yes, a trip to band camp, they discover that times change and people change, but in the end, it's all about sticking together.

After FBI agent Frank Lacrosse believes his son was kidnapped by a notorious serial killer, he travels to Amarillo, Texas, where he believes the murderer is in hiding. Although officially taken off the case because of its personal significance to him, Frank continues to pursue the killer, causing concern for local sheriff Buck Olmstead. When another victim pops up at a nearby car garage, Frank knows that he is as close as he'll ever be to tracking down the elusive killer.

Jennifer is a seventeen years old misfit punk teenager that uses piercing, tattoos, wears only black clothes and dyed hair, self-inflicts injures and has fixation for death. She misses a father and a normal mother, since Mrs. Benson has trouble in the communication with her, and feels absolutely rejected. While looking for a job, she meets the forty-nine years old Randall Harris, a lonely man who owns a shopping store, and he hires her. They are opposites but with loneliness and lack of friends in common. They become close friends, and their interaction changes their behavior for good while secrets and feelings are disclosed.