Two students from neighboring colleges in upstate New York are swept up in a tragic romantic interlude calling for a maturity of vision beyond their experience of capabilities. Pookie Adams, a kooky, lonely misfit with no family and no place to go, insists on calling all those who won't participate in her world "weirdos." She clings to Jerry, a quiet, studious fellow who has the ability to choose to live in Pookie's private little world or be accepted by the society that she rejects. Unwittingly, it is through their awkward relationship that Pookie actually prepares Jerry for the world of "weirdos" into which she neither fits nor wishes to fit.