George, fifteen, and Sam, twelve, have been best friends for as long as they can remember. As the novel opens, George saves Sam from drowning. Their lives evolve; Sam's first dance, first kiss. Slowly, the boys drift apart as the difference in their ages defines them. Still, Sam feels an obligation to George for saving his life. Sam has his first date with Delores, a girl younger than him. George graduates from high school and takes a job with the phone company. After a time, George decides to enlist. The constant portrayal of the Viet Nam war on the nightly news leads Sam to believe that if George goes to war, he will not come back and his debt to him will remain unpaid. Sam cheats on Delores, who loves him so, with Lois, a girl from his own class. Soon after their tryst, George begins to date Lois. A steady relationship between them develops, even though George will soon be leaving for boot camp. Delores becomes pregnant and Sam is overwhelmed by choices about marriage, abortion, and running away from his responsibilities. He faces Delores' parents. As George's departure looms, Delores has an abortion. Her parents forbid her to see Sam again. Sam's mind breaks. Imagining he and George are playing cowboys and Indians as they did as kids, he tries to jump out a second story window but is saved at the last second by his father. He is admitted to a mental hospital. Strong tranquilizers are prescribed. Lois visits as does his mother, but his father stays away. He is consumed by the fear of facing the stigma about mental illness when he is released. Delores makes a secret visit and tells Sam that her abortion was done in this same hospital. Thoughts about his debt to George, the abortion, wanting and not wanting Delores, how others will perceive his breakdown and George going to war consume him. Once home, Sam picks up his relationship with Delores. Her father threatens him with statutory rape and jail. Sam and Delores run away to Cape Cod and stay on a commune with friends of Lois. Sam calls Lois to tell her they have arrived, and she convinces him to send Delores home on a bus as her father has followed through on his threats. Sam runs out of his medication and his mental state deteriorates. He goes home and hides in the woods. His friends find him and try to convince him to return to the hospital. Sustained by Jack Daniels, he goes. He is not allowed any medication until his system is free of alcohol. Sam cannot handle it and after violent outbursts is restrained in a strait jacket. Weeks of Thorazine bring losses of time and memory. A letter from George arrives from Viet Nam. He drifts apart from Delores. As he begins to heal he tells Lois, '"My life has settled into a series of fits and stops, starts and glides.”