Barret Michaelson is an unwelcome newcomer in a public high school, often bullied by his new classmates. He has no friends until another misfit with a bad reputation, Ryan, saves him from a beating in the men's locker room. Ryan is a misanthropic existentialist with violent tendencies and a dark past. It is revealed that Ryan's father murdered his mother and then committed suicide in front of Ryan when he was only ten years old.