Buddy is seven years younger than his brother, Lee, but they have always been close. After their praents die in a car crash, the two young men sell what is left of their dusty Oklahoma farm and travel north to Snake Junction, Idaho. There, while Lee sings in a bar, 17-year-old Buddy is at loose ends -- until he meets Irene. Beautiful, mysterious, and almost twice his age, Irene leads Buddy into manhood.