This is the tale of two young lovers who flee from the miseries of their homelife to make it on there own. Nineteen year old Chris, rejected by his family, hopes to go to college and into forestry once he's out of the Army Reserves. Holly, who is fourteen, lives with her divorced, overprotective mother and her brother. She runs with an older crowd and soon attaches herself to Chris. Holly's mother is dead set against Chris because of his age, and she and Holly are at odd's over him. When she forbids them to see one another, and boots Chris out of her yard, Holly convinces a doubtful Chris to run off to the promises of California. The Trip West, with the couple penniless, avoiding the law, a lecherous trucker and other routine incidents, shows them that life will not be easy.

Seth is a youth with artistic leanings, a fascination with Black pop culture, and a dead-end life in an Adirondack village. He's alternatively sensitive and brutal with Kristen, who wants a sexual relationship that he explosively rejects. Late one night, as he's closing the cafe where he works, a young Black man attempts to rob him at gun point but faints from illness. Seth takes the man, Knowledge, an escapee from a nearby prison, to a family cabin where he nurses him and they begin a tentative friendship. When the sheriff learns of Seth's harboring a fugitive, a confrontation looms. Relationships between fathers and their children dominate the subplots.

A man is cursed with falling in love with other men's women.