A 14 year old boy named Gunther moves to a small town with his parents and little brother. He meets up with a group of overly charitable paper boys who want him to sub for their friend while he's out of town. Gunther agrees so he can get enough money for concert tickets to take his blonde and beautiful crush too, all the while dealing with Chad, her wannabe boyfriend and his bully friends. All in all, Gunther learns to respect himself and other people and to have fun during it all.

Baltimore, 1959. Danny's dad is the only man in the neighborhood who didn't fight in World War II. Danny, who's 12, gets teased and folks make nasty cracks about cowards. An old radio tower on a nearby hill is about to be torn down, and Danny decides to climb it to prove his courage. Help comes from an aging neighbor, Old Man Langer, a former construction foreman who's dying of cancer and wants Danny to help him commit suicide. Langer rigs pulleys and weights to help the lad make the climb. Meanwhile, an aggressive and angry neighbor (an army vet) regularly gets drunk and shoots off his rifle, and Danny's dad must confront him. It all comes to a head one stormy night.