Iris Deerborne, Kara Hayward, is a shy teenager living in a rural Oklahoma town in 1960. The emotionally distant mother Francie pushes glamour onto her daughter, while Iris endures constant bullying at school from many peers, especially the popular yet insecure “queen bee” Clarissa Dell, Madisen Beaty. Iris harbors a quiet crush on Jeff Owings, Lucas Jade Zumann, a fellow student who helps her father, but she lacks the nerve to act on her feelings. Nightly swims in a local pond become a small rebellion against her suffocating routine, a place where she wishes she could disappear and start over.
One day, Iris is accosted by several boys on the way to school, and Maggie Richmond, Liana Liberato, a new girl in town, chases them off with rocks. At school the other girls are captivated by Maggie’s arrival and the illusion of glamour she seems to possess, even though she reveals early on that her father isn’t a famous Life photographer, but someone who works for an agricultural trade publication. Maggie’s family moved to the town to escape trouble from her past, and the honesty of that admission creates a strange bond between Iris and the newcomer.
Iris and Maggie quickly become close friends, and Maggie pushes Iris to shed her old self. They skip classes to get makeovers, with the local stylist Hazel Atkins, Adelaide Clemens, giving Iris a bold new haircut and a more confident look. As Iris’s appearance shifts, she earns more acceptance from classmates who are chasing dates for the upcoming school dance, and the pond—once a private refuge—begins to feel less like a sanctuary and more like a stage for new social expectations.
At the dance, Iris gathers the courage to dance with Jeff Owings, Lucas Jade Zumann, much to the surprise of her peers. Maggie’s life also intensifies as she is invited to the prom by popular football player Craig Butler, while Maggie’s mother Edith McCoy, Tina Parker, takes her dress shopping for the occasion. Maggie visits Hazel Atkins for another hair touchup, and the dynamics shift when Iris learns that the photograph everyone associates with Hazel’s supposed dead husband is actually Hazel’s brother. Hazel’s tenderness toward Maggie stirs mixed emotions, and Maggie, overwhelmed by the attention, flees to the pond and sleeps with Craig that night. Afterward, a distressed Maggie seeks Iris, drunkenly kissing her before fleeing again.
The following day brings more complications: Maggie has received a promise ring from Craig, and she invites the other girls and their dates to skinny-dip in the pond, an invitation that deeply stings Iris because the pond has felt like a shared, private haven for them. A fierce confrontation erupts, with Iris accusing Maggie of lying and not being true to herself, while Maggie retorts by taunting Iris with the infamous “stinky drawers” nickname the other girls used in the past. Ashamed of the escalating drama and the people it has drawn into her orbit, Maggie runs to Hazel’s house, where the two share a quiet moment before Maggie’s resolve crumbles. A girl who comes by Hazel’s later sees Hazel and Maggie together, and the news quickly ripples through the town, leading to vandalism against Hazel’s car and Hazel deciding to leave town. Maggie’s father’s beating intensifies, and she resolves that she cannot stay.
The morning after, Iris learns of the fallout and finds Maggie’s father and the police by the pond, a site long linked to tragedy in the town. Gerald Richmond, Tony Hale, pleads with Iris to bring Maggie home and claims he no longer cares about Maggie being “bad.” Iris defends her friend, insisting Maggie was never truly bad and that the town’s narrow-minded judgments miscast who she is. With no sign of Maggie, the police cannot determine whether she is alive or dead. When Iris is harassed again on the road, she channels Maggie’s earlier defiance by throwing stones at the tormentors and then comforts her mother with a new resolution. She declares that Maggie isn’t gone and that she has likely found a way to escape the town’s judgment. The film closes with Iris sharing a hopeful moment with Jeff by the pond, where they kiss and swim, signaling a cautious step toward a future shaped by their shared strength and the memory of what they endured.
