This ill-fated but touching love story set in rural Georgia in 1948, Buster Lane is the most popular boy in high school. Buster rules the school with his pack of friends and dates the prettiest girl in town, Margie Hooks. Buster and Margie are engaged to be married right after graduation, and everything is going Buster's way, except one thing: Margie refuses to have sex until they are married. Full of adolescent desire, Buster begins to secretly visit Billie, a painfully shy and reclusive hillbilly girl who lets herself be used for sex with all the local boys in an effort to be accepted. What begins as a secret quest for sexual gratification blossoms into a serious love affair when Buster realizes that he is falling in love with Billie. Despite the disapproval of the local townspeople and his friends and family, Buster breaks his engagement with Margie and begins to seriously date Billie. The two young lovers are blissfully happy, discovering the joys of first love--until their relationship is forced to an end in a violent and tragic encounter.