After years of having every embarassing moment of her life recounted and exaggerated by her father in his newspaper column, 17 yr. old Kale Stiglic has decided that she has had enough. Kale begins searching for something that she could use to publicly embarass her father. When she finally finds the ammunition she needs to get even, it backfires on her and threatens to destroy the marriage of her parents. What makes matters worse is that Kale's annoying 25 yr. old brother, Ethan has separated from his wife and is moving back in with the family. Now she must figure out a way to repair the damage that she is responsible for. Through all this stress that is going on in her life at the moment, she discovers an outlet to express who she is, what she feels and thinks in a zine that she creates entitled, ""Our Hero.""

One of the teachers at Kale's high school, Mr. Minetta decides to make the special required project a ""Passion Play."" What should be an organized project turns out to be a mess, starting with the the mistitling of the play. Where it should cover the last days of Christ, Mr. Minetta is having the students cover his birth. Also, some students like Dalal are offended by the play's strong religous content being covered in a public school. Mary E. is euphoric and takes great pleasure in being involved in the mixture of a misguided and innacurate handeling of such a serious topic. Kale also doesn't want to do the play because she dreads being the person who has to play a costumed cow again. She discovers that Ross has got the permission to do an alternate ""independent study"" project and decides that she wants to do one on her zines. First she has to meet with her assigned project advisor. She decides to bring all her zines to school for the meeting. There, Kale lets Ross and Mary E. re

Kale is ecstatic to find out that her zine was showcased in a literary magazine, but is disappointed that the other zines that were also covered in her opinion seemed to be more interesting than hers. She decides to make her next issue more exciting by approaching and setting up an appointment at her home to interview a dirty disheveled man nicknamed, ""Crazy Guy"" who wanders around the area near the health food store making odd faces everyday staring up at the sky. He also smokes like a chimney and then drops the cigarette butts on the ground. After that, he picks it up and then stuffs them back in his mouth. Later in the evening, Kale prepares dinner for her and crazy guy, but begins to panic and wonder whether this was such a good idea. Meanwhile, Mila reluctantly agrees to let her son, Ethan create and perform a stand-up comedy routine for a benefit that she is in charge of preparing.

Finding out that she is low on funds to continue making copies of her zines, Kale decides to get a job working at a health food store. A dark cloud of frustration and uneasiness begins to hover over Kale's new job when she has to work with Shana who has a bad attitude and appears to have a negative outlook on life. As she continues to work, Kale discovers that Shana is a single mother of a little girl and is less fortunate than her. She tries do help out by attempting to place some extra money anonymously in Shana's bag. Instead of helping, it makes things worse as an angry Shana gives the money back and tells Kale that she doesn't want her pity or help. Meanwhile Ross continues his streak of wearing outragous clothing by coming to school one day wearing very unique, shiny shoes to school. This garners the attention of everyone including Kale and Mary E. who begin to question Ross' sexual orientation. It proves an interesting and hilarious conversation topic for Kale and Mary E.

Kale's dreams finally come true when she gets to go out with Perfectly Frank. As the date goes on, Kale realizes that the fantasy that she built up surrounding Frank doesn't seem to match with reality. Meanwhile, sparks fly between Mary E. and Ethan.

As the annual taking of the family Christmas card picture approaches, Kale decides that now is the opportune time to seek her revenge on Ethan for making her look foolish in the previous Christmas photo shoots. Kale tricks Ethan into believing that he had gotten the girl that he cheated on his ex-wife with, pregnant. She starts regretting what she has done when Ethan starts to fall apart. Meanwhile, Mary E. receives an unclear and inaudible phone message from Ross who went on a trip to meet a zine writer that he had communicated with on the internet. She starts to become worried and attempts to seek help from his grandparents, but their minimal understanding of English proves to be a problem.

Kale arranges a romantic get-together for Mary-E and an author. Meanwhile, Ross who is confused about who he is, decides to try dating girls.

Kale's head is in the clouds when she believes that she found the one in Bill who works at the copy shop. The relationship seems to be moving a little too fast when a 17 yr. old Kale who is still in high school decides to leave her parents' home and move into an apartment with a 21 yr. old Bill. Ross and Mary E. try to convince her that Bill isn't what he seems and that he is all wrong for her. Their advice goes unheard as Kale gets deeper enthralled into the relationship, but she is pulled down back to earth when she meets and befriends a customer named Gordon at the health food store.

Kale's boyfriend arrives at her home to meet and have dinner with her parents for the first time. Much to Ethan's amusement and Kale's horror, the siblings discover that Bill is high on pot. At the dinner table, Joey and Mila are able to figure out what a very hungry Bill had been doing earlier by the odor of pot that is emanating from him. After witnessing Bill's actions and behavior, Kale's parents falsely accuse her of using drugs. Now Kale has to endure a humiliating, but hilarious marijuana public service announcement acted out by her parents. At Bill's job, Kale pleads with him to cease his habit of smoking weed. An annoyed Bill reluctantly agrees to give it up. Later, Kale discovers that due to his cancer, it is becoming more difficult for Gordon to consume food and he is dangerously losing weight. He takes marijuana to help him eat and digest his food, but he doesn't have anymore. Kale tells Gordon that she will help him find some. She desperately searches for it, but

A physically drained and mentally malfunctioning Kale is roaming the school as one of the undead due to her spending all of her time devoted to only Bill and his endeavors. Mary E. begins to become frustrated and worried when she believes Kale's rationalization is warped over not being able to see Bill's band perform live because she has to stay home for her parents' reunion with their friends. At the reunion Joey, Mila, and their friends will unearth and open up a time capsule that they had buried when they were teenagers of their dreams for the future. A concerned Dalal, Ross, and Mary E. decide to have an intervention with Kale to help their friend realize that her relationship is unhealthy. The three trap a weary Kale in an empty classroom and begin to go over all the misfortunes of her being involved with Bill whom they believe has been treating her rottenly since she began going out with him, but somehow Kale is still addictively drawn to him. Mary E. tells Kale that she must

Kale is overjoyed and feels a renewed sense of happiness about her relationship with Bill when he finally says that he loves her. This all changes when a continuous painful itching problem sends Kale to the clinic for a checkup. Through the test results, the Doctor diagnosis Kale with chylamidia, a sexually transmitted disease. He begins to ask an embarrassed and ashamed Kale about her sexual history and has a very serious stern lecture with her about protection, having the partner tested, and treatment. Bill's words not meshing well with his actions throw Kale into a whirlwind of confusion and uncertainty. She talks to Gordon who reveals to her that there are people out there who use the special phrase of ""I love you"" for all the wrong reasons when they don't mean it to get laid. He admits that there were times when he was a teenager where he did the same thing, but not anymore. Today he realizes those words are important and must have honest feelings and a meaning behind them.

Kale does her best to get over her breakup with Bill, but all her thoughts and past feelings of him are consuming every moment of her present life. Ross and Dalal decide that they must do something about this so they start plotting and scheming against Bill. Meanwhile, everything changes for Kale as she is shattered by the news of Gordon's death, which causes her to seclude herself from the outside world. Mary E. comes over to bring Kale a card from their classmates and asks her friend if she wants to borrow her dress to attend Gordon's wake where his family and friends will honor his memory, celebrate his life, and give thanks to God for knowing such a wonderful person. An enraged Kale lashes out and says that she will not be going. She questions Mary E. about futilely searching for something out of Gordon's death to celebrate and give thanks for. Later her brother, Ethan visits the basement in search of the plastic chicken that he needs for his standup gig later that evening. E