A fourteen year old trying to find her way in the world, Doreen is as much an outcast at school as she is at home. Marginalised by her peers, misunderstood by her parents and mourning the loss of her older brother, who disapeared when she was just a child, Doreen finds solace in her fierce love of music and in her best friend, Ted. But when her older sister begins dating a bewildering twenty one year old named Matthew, Doreen must confront feelings she never knew she possessed. Forced into adulthood kicking and screaming (not to mention swearing), Doreen ultimately impels her troubled family to forge a new understanding of the world- and maybe, more suprisingly, of each other.