Look closer—into the lives of a rather ordinary middle-class suburban American family. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) has an unfulfilling job and marriage. He and his daughter Jane (Thora Birch) barely speak. Their lives are disrupted when, due to downsizing at his job, Lester decides to make some real changes—changes that are less midlife crisis than a return to adolescence. He gets a job as a fast food clerk. He lusts after his daughter’s beautiful, but brainless, friend Angela (Mena Suvari). Lester’s wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), responds to her husband’s inexplicable behavior and newfound happiness by having an affair with a real estate colleague.

Compounding the chaos is the arrival next door of an equally turbulentfamily, lorded over by strict Marine Col. Fitts (Chris Cooper). Fitt’s distant son, Ricky (Wes Bentley), soon develops a fascination with Jane. She falls in love with the drug dealing, physically abused boy next door, who is overwhelmed by all the beauty in the world.