Wil is a teenage Heavy Metal fan who lives with his family in Belfast. He is sent with nine other Protestants, plus ten Catholic youngsters, to Milwaukee USA as part of a month-long peace initiative. The organisers of ¿Project Ulster¿ are full of optimism, but the Project goes wrong from the start. Wil is not simply the angst-ridden, fourteen-year-old he appears to be. He lives a secret life as a Loyalist terrorist, and peace is the last thing on his mind. That is, until he meets Teresa, a bewitching Catholic girl who makes him believe that the American Dream, where everyone can live together, might be possible. But when Teresa breaks Wil¿s heart, old grievances resurface. Egged on by his host family¿s son, the Catholic-hating Derry, Wil soon resorts to his old ways.

HAPPY DAYS becomes BADLANDS as events spiral out of control.