Jasper John arrives in San Diego on a broken-down Harley, ready to put a hell-raising and felonious adolescence behind him. He attends college part-time, but the employees and regulars at Fat Stanley's Diner become his real teachers. Along the way there's death, a good many brawls, and a valiant attempt to produce Shakespeare's most famous love story as a pornographic film - all while Jasper struggles to become a man and searches for love in a world that seems to be spinning out of control.