In the small West Virginia mining town of Electric Park, a group of self-proclaimed teenage pacifists calling themselves "The Dandies" decide to begin carrying guns. The resolution starts after one of their members, Dick, buys what he thinks is a toy gun. His co-worker tells him the gun is real, and the two start shooting and studying guns in their spare time. They later recruit other outcasts, young men and one young woman who do not, or cannot, work in the mine, including one boy in leg braces and his younger brother Freddie. Dick becomes gradually more and more attached to the gun, naming it "Wendy" and writing it love letters.