A high school junior who is having trouble dealing with his father's death, his mother's new job as a stripper, and his own libido meets a new girl who, despite their ups and downs, makes life seem pretty wonderful after all.
While his mother grieves the death of her fourth husband, Tony vents his feelings to the Confess-O-Rama, never suspecting who's on the other end of the line.
Worried that his mother will send his beloved grandfather to a nursing home "for his own good," Jesse and some of his eighth-grade classmates accompany Pappy into the mountains near their small California town to look for the tiger tracks he claims to have seen.