A secret admirer's crush on a high school athlete takes a fatal turn.

A small lakeside resort community is beset by roaches. Big killer roaches that reproduce in dark moist places, and can grow to 10 feet long. The local sheriff may or may not be using them as part of his land-grab scheme. The locals eventually call in an over-the-top bug exterminator to relieve themselves of their problem.

Natty Gann (played by Meredith Salenger) is a twelve year old Depression era girl whose single-parent father leaves her behind in Chicago while he goes to Washington State to look for work in the timber industry. Natty runs away from the guardian she was left with to follow Dad. She befriends and is befriended by a wolf that has been abused in dog fights, hops a freight train west, and is presumed dead when her wallet is found after the train crashes. Dad gets bitter and endangers himself in his new job. Meanwhile Natty has a series of adventures and mis- adventures in various farmhouses, police stations, hobo camps, reform schools, and boxcars.

A cop, his partner, and his father uncover a plot by city elders to smuggle drugs from Mexico into Phoenix, Arizona.