Confused and uncertain about life, death, sex, and music, about in that order, Rudy comes of age the summer before his final high school year in Galt, a town as dust-bowl depressed as its 1,800 citizens. Church pulpits on Sundays preach hope and eternal rewards to impatient youths and resigned elders who during the rest of the week engage their secular natures in Hollywood's escapist movies and express sinful instincts at dances and intermissions. To support himself and his widowed mother, Rudy works for those forces of escapism and sin by playing nights in a pickup dance band, janitoring days for the town's movie theater. He wants to play the sax better, make out with girls, avoid fights at home, and not have so many of his friends leave Galt or die. Thieves murder Indian friend Jack for a silver belt buckle. An after-dance car wreck kills classmate Elgin. Illness wastes cousin Lana, love of his school-boy crush. Rudy's mother leaves town to re-marry. His passionate partner in crying room trysts moves away. In autumn 1940 Rudy reflects on his self-absorbed, poignant personal life and realizes that all the sad departures and dying were just the beginning as he and Galt awaken to an impending world war.