Kyle Byrdie is a rebellious young man, breaking into the local grocery store at night to steal liquor, maliciously shooting and killing a neighbor's dog, harassing an elderly couple by throwing feral cats into their bedroom at night, but he crosses the line when he rapes his younger sister. When his father learns of this vile act, short of putting him in jail, he seeks the only available remedy - sending him to a book camp for unmanageable youths. Two strange men come to his home in the middle of the night, and while he is a drunken stupor, sleeping, they wrap him up in blankets and then haul him several hundred miles high up into the mountains. There, at Redwood Estates, he is given a rude awakening to the harsh life that awaits him. It doesn't take long for things to go from bad to worse. He gets into an altercation with one of the guards, killing him. He escapes, steals a car and makes his way back home where he intends to exact revenge on the family that sent him to the book camp.