During the last years of World War II, Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie are coming of age. They went their separate ways when they graduated from high school in 1944. Benjie joins the Marines as Hermie and Oscy enter college. There, Hermie falls head over heels for another freshman named Julie, and the two old friends deal with a troublesome fraternity president who is in charge of hazings.

The Dingles are Doris and her three cats. Life is idyllic, until the day a big windstorm threatens to blow the cats away.

When two teenage boys, one a high school dropout robbing houses to survive and the other a social outcast who is constantly bullied in school, meet under tense circumstances, they are forced to understand each other's struggles.