Based on the 1993 best selling debut novel of the same name by American author Jeffrey Eugenides, the film tells of the lives of five teenage sisters in a middle-class suburb near the outskirts of Detroit during the 1970s. After the youngest sister makes an initial attempt at suicide, her sisters are put under close scrutiny by their parents, eventually being confined to the home, which leads to their increasingly depressive and isolated behavior. Like the novel, the film is told from the perspective of a group of adolescent boys in the neighborhood who are fascinated by the girls.