Charlie Thompson, un chico de quince años que es abandonado a su suerte por su padre, emprende junto a un caballo de carreras robado un peligroso viaje en busca de su tía, de la cual no tiene noticias desde hace tiempo, y un nuevo hogar.
The Herlihys are a working class family from Chicago whose three children take wildly divergent paths: Brian joins the Marines right out of High School and goes to Vietnam, Michael becomes involved in the civil rights movement and after campaigning for Bobby Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy becomes involved in radical politics, and Katie gets pregnant, moves to San Francisco and joins a hippie commune. Meanwhile, the Taylors are an African-American family living in the deep South. When Willie Taylor, a minister and civil rights organizer, is shot to death, his son Emmet moves to the city and eventually joins the Black Panthers, serving as a bodyguard for Fred Hampton.
The frozen body of a prehistoric, but super-advanced, human leads scientists to start covert DNA experiments for the development of a new race of super beings.
Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.
Kyle Sullivan (Scott Bairstow) es un solitario adolescente que está resentido al tener que trasladarse a un pueblo perdido en el estado de Washington por el trabajo de su padrastro. En la escuela, él se hace amigo de Shane Carver (Eric Mabius) que introduce a Kyle en su grupo, "Los Chicos del Círculo Negro", los cuales han jurado lealtad a Satanás. El grupo participa en el uso regular de drogas y tontos actos de vandalismo. Pero el completamente "fuera de control" Shane somete a Kyle, cada vez más, al lado oscuro, culminando finalmente con un asesinato.