When a middle class girl graduates from college, she rents a trailer near her Pennsylvania hometown to spend her last summer of freedom.
Janice graduates from college and wishes to return to her old stomping grounds, but pride prohibits her from moving back home. She opts to rent in a trailer park, a place that turns out to be very different from the more privileged life to which she is accustomed. Living amongst her poorer neighbors gains her a glimpse into their lives, where she encounters fights, flea bombs, fires, and mustard facials.
Surrounded by a neighborhood full of colorful characters, Janice learns about herself and the sometimes cruel and unjust ways of the world. She befriends a battered hippie girl and an imported ex-con as she observes the antics of her less civilized neighbors. She watches as drugs, domestic violence, and poverty affect the lives of the people she has come to call her friends, ultimately changing her and her views of the world around her.