Chrissie's last week of high-school in Downers Grove, IL. is a paranoid trip through a small Midwestern town gripped by a 'curse' that claims the life of one high school senior every year. With only five days to graduation, Chrissie Swanson is beginning to wonder if she will be the next victim of the Curse of Downers Grove.

On a train, Keith and Mick chat about the blues and the Rolling Stones are born. Douglas and Joe chat in front of a New Jersey music store, and a band is born: as Douglas's sister tells us, it's one of many that don't make it. We follow Douglas from high school (1963-64), when he sees himself as a loser, into the band, playing drums and singing backup - then as the front man. There are tensions, a breakup, an audition in front of a major player, and decisions. Douglas pursues Grace, a country-club gal with hip sensibilities who believes in him. There's also his father, working class, wanting Douglas to apply himself as he watches his own life fill with regrets.

James Tresswick and Mark Vincent are victims of a brutal bully Gary Parker who has maltreated both boys, marking their bodies and spoiling their young lives. In their last year of high school, James and Mark find a way to stop being victims. They're going to kill Gary; Wandering alone around an isolated forest - the suspected site of the disappearance of a local girl - 17 year old Mark strays upon an adult male filling in a trench. It's suspicious and tantalizing. Mark returns with his friend James and Chasley Keys and they bring shovels to exhume what will probably be rotting garbage or someone's dead pet - or so they tell themselves. They find the ghostly white body of a woman. She's a tourist - a Canadian backpacker. The "trench" is a grave. The "adult male" is her killer. And they've got him by the balls. Responding to Mark's intimations James floats an idea to seek out "the sicko". It'll be a bit of fun. He's confident the guy lives in their suburb; Mark saw his car parked on a ...