High-schoolers Layne, Matt, Samson--who is nicknamed John since his last name, Tollet, sounds like toilet--Mike, Tony, Clarissa, Jamie, and Maggie are a bunch of delinquents who often hang out together smoking weed or drinking. John has just killed Jamie because she was spouting off about his deceased mother, a sensitive issue to him. John left her naked dead body where he killed her, in a small clearing by the river. John feels the need to tell his friends what he did, and in small groups they go down to the clearing to ascertain that he's telling the truth. Another person who knows about the murder is Matt's equally-delinquent 12-year-old brother Tim, who might be even more dangerous than the teens as he does anything to get what he wants, namely weed, and to honor what he sees as the code, not understanding the consequences. Despite Jamie being their friend, no one says anything to the authorities; they feel almost paralyzed because their unofficial leader Layne wants to protect John by getting rid of Jamie's body. The police eventually do find out about the murder, and Layne hides John, using his older "friend" Feckler--who generally supplies them with free weed and allegedly killed a young woman when he was about their age--while others try to find out who told the police. While some may want revenge against "the snitch", the actions of the collective demonstrate how detached they are about their friend Jamie's death.—Huggo