Adapted from a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, Small Avalanches takes place during the summer of 1971 and follows a singular event in the life of a thirteen year-old girl named Nancy. Spending her afternoons at her Uncle's gas station in the hopes of seeing people and being seen, Nancy encounters an older well-to-do man from the city who is stopping for gas. As she is walking home at the end of the day, the man returns and follows her. Nancy soon finds herself in a situation that profoundly affects her childhood innocence forever.