As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who trashed a house in his neighborhood, Buddy, one of the trashers, increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents' separation and his obsession with the daughter of the owner of the vandalized house.

Sixteen-year-old Denny lives in the shadow of a deadly accident with which his father was connected when he was Denny's age, a disaster for which some of the survivors still blame his father.