Tim and his best friend Andy Jones live in the town of Beaumont, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. They have been best friends ever since they played Pop Warner football when they were nine years old. Tim’s dad is Coach Joe of the Beaumont Warrior Varsity football team.

Coach Joe and Tim have lived alone since Tim was three, when Tim’s mother left Coach Joe and Tim. Andy lost his father suddenly to a heart attack when he was 13 and just entering middle school. Somehow, Tim and Andy have found a way to overcome the terrible heartbreak of having lost a parent.

Twins Bobby and Donna Wilson move into Beaumont when they enter freshman year. They are both talented athletes, but they are running away from a dark secret that has torn their family apart. They move to Beaumont, and immediately, the two make an impact on Tim and Andy - sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad.

The four friends grow up together, but Bobby’s rage over his family’s past can hardly be contained. Bobby pulls Andy into the spiraling vortex of drugs and alcohol, while Tim and Donna’s friendship changes into something much, much more.

The tension between the four friends becomes tested when they become seniors and captains of their teams. But pain and suffering are poisons that have to come out, and only through the greatest of tragedies can the four friends become whole again.