Writer and director Tim McCanlies has created a spiffy valentine to small-town America that evidences a wholesome attitude toward community. When they were eleven years old, four of the town's five graduating high school students made a vow to move to Los Angeles. Keller (Breckin Meyer), an orphan who looks after his widower grandfather, wants to make concrete plans but the others are less enthused about the idea.

John (Eddie Mills) is being romanced by his taciturn father to stay and help him with the ranch while attending a nearby school. Terrell Lee (Peter Facinelli) has a pushy mother who wants him to take over their oil business, and Squirrel (Ethan Embry), the son of an alcoholic father, senses that he may soon have his moment in the sun with Dancer's eligible young women.

This laid-back drama ambles around its peripheral themes of coming-of-age and friendship. The townsfolk take bets on whether or not the boys will leave. And everyone has a bit of advice to give them. The strength of the small community comes shining through in the momentous last scene of the drama.