El joven Stanley Yelnats comienza un viaje de autodescubrimiento cuando es enviado a un centro de detención juvenil en Texas, donde los niños son forzados a cavar agujeros de un metro de profundidad como un castigo, un proceso por el cual Stanley sospecha que el guardián tiene motivos ocultos.

In an attempt to please her friends, sixteen-year-old Dallas goes along with their plan to rob a convenience store and when her father refuses to allow her to come home, she is sentenced to six months in the Girls' Rehabilitation Center.

Home for the summer, college athlete Chip Hilton hopes to occupy the restless and destructive young people of the town by involving them in a sports program, with an emphasis on baseball.

Fifteen-year-old Billy tries to run away from his street friend and the memory of the random act of violence they committed.

A girl in New York's Spanish Harlem, joins a girl's gang but finds less dignity in this situation than in the home life from which she sought relief.