John Stapleton and Gino Cicarelli, two high school students who met at a wrestling competition, become friends and begin a journey together that explores John's past and Gino's future aspirations. Along the way, they come into conflict with traditional religious institutions and eventually end up in the military. But this is only the beginning. As their friendship grows closer and their lives become more intertwined, they face a situation that neither understands and neither knows how to deal with. Their opinions on how to remedy the situation differ wildly and result in the first conflict these two young men ever had between them. The results of this conflict are devastating.