Three boys, Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine, and Dave Boyle, play hockey in a Boston street in 1975. Spotting wet concrete, they start writing their names into it when a car pulls up with two men, one pretending to be a police officer and the other a priest. One gets out and berates the boys for their actions, and tells Dave to get into the car. The men hold Dave captive and sexually abuse him for four days, until he escapes.
Twenty-five years later, the boys are grown and, while they still live in Boston, have drifted apart. Jimmy is an ex-con running a neighborhood store, while Dave is a blue-collar worker, still haunted by his abduction. The two are still neighbors and related by marriage. Jimmy's 19-year-old daughter Katie is secretly dating Brendan Harris, a boy Jimmy despises. Brendan and she are planning to run away together to Las Vegas.