Teenager, Marilyn Patterson is a stunning beauty, and she knows it. Born in New Hampshire to a family of impoverished women, she quickly figures out what she needs to do to survive. Marilyn is nothing but bored as she and her sister smoke their Marlboros, and watch the hicks walk by at the town's Fourth of July celebration. Just as she sits on the steps of the railroad station a handsome boy approaches and changes her life forever.
Tyrone Sullivan is a self- confident college student from a large middle-class family. Marilyn lives in a small cabin full of empty bottles and overflowing ashtrays along with her sisters and her alcoholic mother. Even though their lives could not be more different, Ty and Marilyn can only see each other and immerse themselves in a passionate relationship. But when reality closes in, Ty reluctantly lets Marilyn go, sending her back into a world of fast drug deals and even faster men.
Marilyn's life comes full circle when she arrives back to the same small town several years later. Now she must decide if she wants to take back the man she has spent years trying to forget.