As Eileen Dermott cooks breakfast, she asks her husband Jake to wake their three sons. Jake yells up the stairs that the boys have three minutes to get to the breakfast table. The middle child, Kit, awakens to find the youngest, Duncan, is not in his bed. A quick peek in the next room shows the oldest, Brian, is also missing. Kit runs to town and raps on the window of Nancy Trainer, a middle-aged woman running for town mayor. She wakes Brian and tells him to go home. Kit then runs to the center of town to find Duncan covered in vomit sleeping off a hangover. The three brothers arrive at the kitchen table and are surprised to find their father in a suit and tie. Jake refuses to tell them why he is dressed up. Brian insists they have to go over the sales figures for the family chicken restaurant, but Jake grows angry and leaves. The boys are working at the restaurant when Lois Cook, a middle-aged waitress, tells Kit how much she enjoys watching him run. As Jake leaves for his meeting, Brian corners him and insists they have to change their poultry supplier for someone cheaper. Jake refuses, stating he believes in loyalty. He then tells Brian that he is doing a good job. Meanwhile, Duncan sneaks into the bathroom and catches Lois Cook changing. He begs her to have sex with him, but she points out he is only seventeen. A young woman, Beverly Young, comes in to order a catering job, but insists on talking to Jake. Before she leaves, she asks Kit if he is coming to her wedding, but Kit claims he has nothing to wear. Nancy Trainer comes in campaigning for mayor and Brian drags her into the office. He tells Nancy that his father would not approve of her bothering their patrons, and she lets slip that Jake has been getting offers to sell the restaurant. Brian quits work early to drive to the house of single mother Beth Harper and buys marijuana cigarettes from her. He plays with her young son, Demetri, before leaving to pick up his brothers. The boys spend the evening drinking and smoking marijuana. On the way home, they decide they should “own” the town, and they stop a car claiming they are doing a sobriety check. The passengers are Beverly and her fiancé, Kevin Burley. Beverly volunteers to take a “drunk test” and recites the Pledge of Allegiance backwards. However, when Kit kisses her for a “breathalyzer test,” Burley leaps out of the car and takes a swing at him. Brian and Duncan split the two men up before a real fight occurs. Burley yells at Brian to never to ask him for a job before driving off with Beverly. The next morning, the boys are distressed to learn Jake has sold the restaurant. Brian erupts, yelling that he had planned to run the restaurant, but now has no financial future. Jake explains that he always hated selling chicken and does not want to die regretting never doing anything else. Brian accuses him of not loving his sons and storms out of the house. When Brian goes to see Burley for a job, the man calls him selfish and juvenile. Brian agrees and asks when he starts. The next morning Brian shows up late for work and Burley fires Brian, but he refuses to leave. Kit takes a job at a general store for Lenny Stockton, who also plays country music at the bar. Beverly arrives and Kit asks her to go running. She meets him on the trail and explains she is training for the same fifteen-mile race he is. That night, Brian takes Nancy out and attempts to propose when they hear the television announce she has been elected mayor. Back at Nancy’s place she breaks up with Brian as it would not look good for the mayor to be seen “robbing the cradle.” Weeks pass with Burley firing Brian daily, but the oldest McDermott refuses to leave. Burley surrenders and promotes Brian to foreman. Brian drives over to see the empty lot the restaurant used to stand on and finds Duncan smoking marijuana. Brian asks how the family is, and Duncan responds that if he wants to know, he should come over. That night, at the insistence of Lenny Stockton, Brian and Duncan drag their parents to the bar. Lenny announces that Eileen used to sing in his band and invites her up to perform. Kit accompanies Eileen on harmonica to the crowd's enjoyment. The next day, Kit and Beverly drive a few towns over to compete in the race. As they wait for the starting pistol, Beverly grabs Kit and kisses him. A stunned Kit stands in place as the other runners start, but quickly recovers and places third. Instead of driving home, Beverly drives Kit to the ocean, where they get a motel room. Although Beverly insists she is marrying Burley, they make love. The next day, Beverly orders Kit to come to her wedding, stating, “The modern woman always has her lovers at her wedding.” A few days later, Eileen goes to the job site where Brian is working as foreman and demands he come to dinner. Brian asks why Jake did not come to invite him, Eileen tells him Brian does not get out much. Jake decides to burn all the restaurant paperwork. As he tosses files into the flames, he keels over with a heart attack. Brian rushes to the hospital and punches a doctor who refuses to let him into the operating room. Kit races after him and the two stop short when they see Jake’s dead body. Overcome with tears, Brian finds Duncan and Eileen to tell them the news. Days after the funeral, Brian spends time with Beth Harper and her son. He teaches Demetri to sing the same songs Jake sang to him when he was little. Duncan helps Eileen pack up Jake’s belongings, sells the recreation vehicle, and sorts out the legal papers. One day he suggests Eileen take a job singing with her old band. She does and a few weeks later, Lenny asks Kit what his brothers would think if he asked Eileen out. Kit tells him to ask them, but Lenny worries about Brian’s hot temper. Kit goes home to find everyone talking about Duncan applying to college. They are shocked into silence when Kit accuses Eileen of having an affair with Lenny even before Jake died. Eileen gathers all the food on the table and scrapes it onto Kit’s plate. She then screams that is the last food she will ever make for him and runs off crying. Kit meets Beverly in the woods and tells her he wants to confess to Burley that they slept together. She reveals that although she loves Kit, she needs someone dependable to lean on. Kit confesses he does not know what to do about anything in his life. As Kit walks home, his brothers drive up in a pickup truck and ask to talk. Instead, Brian runs into the woods. Blinded by tree branches, Duncan races after him and drives into a water filled quarry. Kit leaps in after them and gets both brothers out of the truck as it sinks to the bottom. Onshore, Brian screams that if Kit ever talks to his mother like that he will kill him, but Kit counters that Brian abandoned their father. Brian throws a punch just as Duncan steps between them and catches it on the jaw. Duncan pretends to be knocked out cold, but his brothers know he is faking and tickle him. Soon all three are laughing and screaming. Days later, Kit dances with Beverly at her wedding and informs her he is registered to run the New York Marathon. Brian snubs Nancy to dance with Beth. Lois makes plans with Duncan to take his virginity. Later, the brothers go to the bar where Kit apologizes to Eileen. They wander onto the empty street where Duncan suggests Brian marry Beth so he can be an uncle. They laugh that this is "the ending of an era."