Centering on Timothy "Dildo/Dunph" Dunphy, the film is about his life of mischief, his "incentive" to attend the Cornwall Academy preparatory boarding school, and his realization that the haze in which he has lived has to give way to something that will stay with him forever.

[1] Timothy "Dildo/Dunph" Dunphy is in the Class of 1974 in his high school senior year living in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, comes from a troubled single parent working-class family, and is friends with those who have aspirations which do not exceed smoking marijuana at the water tower that has a view of the town.

His father, Pat suffers from his wife committing suicide and appears naïve when the boys come back to the Dunphys' house to get a bong.

The guys head home with Dunph at the wheel but he is unable to see the road with the cloud of marijuana smoke filling the cab.

Dunph learns that new friend Wheeler and other new schoolmates, a class of people that seem to have more opportunities than himself, are involved in their own mischief just like the boys back home.

He routinely misses classes without repercussion because his father pledges a large donation to the school on the condition that Billy graduate.

Dunph resolves to see Jane's college plans revitalized by speaking with the Dean at Brown University, as he explains that she was the innocent party in the incident.

Dunph comes to terms with his father's apprehension discussing the death in the family because the latter felt responsible for imposing on her a life that she could not handle; she being too young when they married, depressed and agoraphobic.

Dunph refuses to shake Funderburk's hand at the graduation ceremony in the auditorium and exits after asking his classmates for his "luggage".

An alternate ending is found on the DVD, which has Dunph leaving the graduation ceremonies, meeting Jackie and Clopsy, their three-legged dog.