It was the summer of 1975. Our college sophomore has spent spring semester doing drugs, feeling the freedom of being out of the clutches of his dominating adult relatives, thumbing to Maine in desperation over bad grades, and having a good time with the debate team. But life feels like hell. He decides it is time for a regrouping and heads back ?home? for the summer.By day he works construction among hilljacks. At night he parties with his few friends, also back from college. Weekends he gets away to Bloomington for keggers and other parties. As the end of summer nears, he learns that his relatives are secretly plotting to have him committed and he escapes West with some buddies but soon realizes how futile that kind of escape is.

Depressed and believing himself a failure, he returns to school. Ironically, he soon becomes a candidate for Student Body President, creates a substantial income by writing term papers for other students, and, miraculously, after twenty years, finally loses his virginity. Suddenly everything comes into focus and he discovers himself.