Set in the early 1970s in a suburban town in the Southern United States, the film follows the lives of protagonist Francis Doyle, and three of his friends, Tim Sullivan, Wade Scalisi and Joey Anderson. The four boys all attend a private Catholic school named Agatha of Sicily, which they detest. The boys rebel by smoking Marijuana, Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States, obsessing over girls, listening to hard rock music and playing pranks on their teachers, such as stealing their school's statue of St. Agatha and keeping it in their clubhouse. The four friends dedicate much of their time to a comic book of their own creation titled ''The Atomic Trinity'' in order to escape the monotony and avoid the difficulties in their own lives.