Two boys, Ralph [Robert Downey Jr.] and Scott [Kiefer Sutherland], hitchhike home from college on Easter morning, their voices echoing across the glen as the lakeside Easter Sunrise service unfolds. The moment amuses [Winona Ryder] as Beth Carr and [Joanna Cassidy] as Ev Carr, and embarrasses Scott’s parents, [Bruce Dern] as Cliff Denny and [Mariette Hartley] as Jessie Denny, who watch with a mix of pride and exasperation.
Later that day, they drive Alden Palmer Denny [Christopher Wynne], Scott’s older brother, who is shipping off to Vietnam, to the bus depot; Alden and Scott clash when Scott accuses the Marine of being afraid to go to Vietnam. Their father, Cliff, arrives with questions, while Jessie glances between concern and resolve as the family grapples with the looming conflict.
A few weeks later, Scott and Ralph return for Beth’s high school graduation, and they learn that Ralph has flunked out of college, making him eligible for the draft. The trio—Ralph, Scott, and Beth—dream of a summer spent on the road, living out of a van, soaking in the freedom and experimentation of the counterculture that seems to promise a different path from the one their families expect. They drift into a summer festival back in their hometown, only to discover that Alden has disappeared and is listed as MIA, a crushing blow that casts a pall over the celebration.
In a bold, reckless grab for control, Ralph and Scott hatch a plan to steal their draft files from the local draft board office. The scheme unravels quickly, and Ralph is arrested, jolting the pair back to the fragile line between youth’s bravado and the consequences that follow.
With Ralph behind bars, Scott resolves to dodge the draft altogether by heading to Canada, and he invites Beth to join him, proposing that they vanish from the war’s reach until it ends. The two grow closer in the van, and their feelings deepen into a quiet, urgent romance. They eventually decide to pay Ralph a visit in jail to tell him they’re leaving, only to become tangled in Ralph’s sharp, sardonic observations. He reveals that, in his own way, he wants to go to Vietnam, and learns that his friend and Beth have become intimate. The confession strains the bond between them, and Ralph’s hurt leads him to sever ties with Scott and distance himself from Beth.
Scott and Beth reach the Canada–United States border, only to hesitate at the threshold and choose to return to Maryland. Back home, they learn the painful truth: Alden has died in the line of duty. The town reels as a funeral punctuates the loss, and Scott steps forward to lead a vast downtown march in the days surrounding the ceremony. Meanwhile, Ralph is released from jail, and the friends find their way back to each other, their loyalties tested but not broken.
In the closing moments, a narration by Scott frames the film’s fate: his family and friends, along with hundreds of thousands of others, head toward Washington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam War. The story lingers on the sense that a generation’s embarkation into adulthood is inseparable from the political storms of its time, and that even amid heartbreak, unity and collective action can offer a path forward.
