Shane, a teenager who lives with his grandparents in Anaheim, California gets busted for drug possession. He believes that the cops over-embellished their side of the story, as they claim that he attacked them. He receives six months of probation. Shane's grandparents decide to send him to his mother and stepfather's house in northern California. Roy Bentley, Shane's stepfather, is a wealthy manufacturer who lives on a ranch. On the plane ride up to northern California, Shane takes some pills and sits next to a slightly older teenager named Grady, who is heading to the seminary. They talk for the whole flight and then exchange contact information before they part. Afterward, Shane goes to the bus station, takes more pills, and drinks most of a bottle of wine. When Roy and his mother Susan find him, Shane is almost completely out of it. They take him home and put him to bed. The next morning, inspired by Grady's wisdom, Shane decides to stop using drugs and turn his life around, so he destroys all his remaining pills. He goes to see his mother and apologizes. Then, he looks around the ranch and finds a barn with an old Chrysler in it that needs repairs. While he sits in it, Roy finds him and says that he expects Shane to work while he stays there, and he can either work on the ranch or in Roy's factory. They visit the factory where Roy and his employees produce high-end duck lamps and Shane sees a cute girl, so he decides to work there. Things begin to turn around for the better for Shane. He enjoys the work at the factory and spending time with his stepfather and mother. Emma, the girl from the factory, has a boyfriend, but she doesn't mind spending time with Shane. He's also been promised the Chrysler at the end of the summer in lieu of wages, so long as he can pass his driver's test, which he has practiced for with Roy. The day of his driver's test, Shane gets a phone call from Grady, who has run away from the seminary, is broke, and needs some help. Shane looks at the time and sees that he can make it there and back before his test, so he takes the Chrysler to pick up his friend. When Shane gets there, Grady explains that he didn't want to go to his parents because they would see him as a failure, and so he's been hitchhiking for the past few days, trying to get to the address Shane gave him. Along the way, Grady wasted his remaining money trying to survive. When they get in the car, Grady gets out some beer and gives one to Shane, who spills some on himself. When Grady finishes his, he throws the can out the window, right in front of a hidden cop. As the cop follows them and turns on his lights, Grady says he also has some speed, so the boys decide to swallow it rather than get caught with it. They get arrested for a number of offenses. Roy Bentley bails them out, and through his connections, gets all but the littering charge dropped. He takes them both home, where Susan violently scolds them. After a few days, however, she calms down and understands why Shane did what he did. Grady gets to stay for a few weeks before going back to his parents. At the end of the summer, Shane happily goes back to his grandparents, and hopes to visit Susan and Roy, who want to try for a baby, next summer.