Gemma is 13 years old who lives with her grandfather in the country, as she has for many years. One day her mother walks into her life and wants to take Gemma to the city. Her mother is now married and tells her she can now provide for her. After a big quarrel with her grandfather Gemma packs her bags and hickhikes to the address her mother left. In the city she gets to know Aggie and Gwen who work in the same beauty parlour as her mother. More significantly she enters into a love affair with Rory, a mentally retarded boy. They play together, imagining that they are married. However a bizarre sexual incident between Rory, Gwen and Gemma changes the course of their lives forever.