Across four decades, Idol Laura searches for her one true love, a quest that threads through a strange, music-filled history where memory, fantasy, and monsters blur the line between dream and reality. The journey unfolds in four acts, each decade revealing new keys to her past and new dangers that test her resolve.
1950s — Laura's pathcrosses with Billy, a charismatic greaser whose life begins to tilt toward trouble as a street gang closes in. Their bond is sparked by dancing and a shared love of rock and roll, a bright spark in a world tightening around them. Laura steps in when Billy is beaten, offering help by handing him a carnival prize that gives him a chance to start anew. Yet fate intervenes: Billy’s car careens out of control, straining their fragile companionship. They attempt to rebuild with simple pleasures—a drive-in movie, a prom night—but tragedy strikes at the height of their hopes. Billy’s attempt to win Laura back with song backfires when the performance floods the venue with a tidal wave of punch, drawing the attention of a looming, unseen threat. The singing awakens a chorus of monstrous forces that pursue Billy, turning the prom into a chaotic disaster and leaving him alone after Laura’s decision to part ways grows final.
1960s — Laura meets Bob, a piano-playing hippie she encounters at a peace rally, and their connection quickly deepens. Bob rescues Laura from pursuit by siren-headed officers, and the two retreat to his apartment, where the shadows of his past as a musical activist begin to surface. They read a storybook titled Sir Gleam Fights the Evil Tooth, a cartoony tale whose battles against Tooth Decay echo in their own fears. When a routine moment turns surreal, a draft notice delivered by a transformed officer becomes a death certificate for Bob, signaling trauma that runs deeper than either of them can measure. To ease the mind, they stroll through a park, yet Bob’s perception warps; inanimate objects appear as weapons, and a nightmarish atmosphere grows under the watch of two women who consult a Ouija board. Laura, overwhelmed, decides to leave town, only to be haunted by her own internal monsters. When Bob returns, he is controlled by marionette strings and morphs into a skeletal soldier who finally bursts into flames, leaving Laura heartbroken and more aware of how their shared history shapes her current loneliness.
1970s — Jack, a fisherman at a winter port, encounters Laura as she is discovered frozen in ice. He helps thaw her, offering warmth and humor as the two form a quiet bond. Together they witness a larger boat harpooning a whale and choose to stand against killing it, cutting the harpoon line in a stand of mercy. But tragedy strikes again when Jack becomes entangled in the rope, drowning as Laura, the lobster, and a seagull cling to a lifeboat. The lobster retrieves Jack’s body, and Laura’s mind replays memories of days spent sailing with a male friend, a memory that ends in the heartbreak of loss. A thunderstorm and monstrous presences greet them on the lifeboat; Jack’s spirit returns to guide them, and the trio momentarily finds solace as the lobster departs with him. In the midst of sorrow, a bottle of alcohol surfaces in a seagull’s possession, offering Laura a temporary respite from her aching thoughts.
1980s — Now living under the alias Peggy Sue, Laura lands a new life at a technology company, where she encounters the Joker, a moody monster with many affairs. Her work life grows stormier as a supercomputer encounter knocks her out, and she awakens to find the man from the computer screen gently guiding her home. That figure dissolves into Billy, Bob, and Jack, prompting Laura to retrace her steps across the years. She buys a new car after a detour at a dealership, drives to the port town, and searches for the familiar companionship she once believed was lost. A moment at a gas station reveals a piano-playing man inside a shipping truck who, disappointingly, is not Bob. In an abandoned diner, Laura plugs a jukebox into life, and Billy’s spirit briefly reappears to comfort her—only to be interrupted by the Joker’s return, carrying a jewel Laura left behind in Billy’s car on prom night. The Joker then unveils his true nature: he is Laura’s True Love, a culmination and reconciliation of Billy, Bob, and Jack. In a final, transformative moment, the Joker takes on his truest form, and Laura finally reunites with the man she has always sought.
The film features the spectral Jukebox as a persistent presence, brought to life by notable voices: Scatman Crothers and Frank Welker, whose performances anchor the otherworldly mood that threads through Laura’s decades-spanning tale. The result is a dreamlike, musical odyssey where memory, love, and loss intertwine, guiding Laura toward a mysterious conclusion that suggests true love can endure beyond time, even as it reshapes itself into something new.
