It's a truth universally acknowledged that high school isn't always the best time of your life. Yet, on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he's found the answer to a fundamental existential question: How can you exist in a place so terrible? His strategy is simple: always remain on the fringes and maintain an extremely low profile. He makes mediocre movies with Earl, the only person who's remotely his friend. This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg's mother forces him to befriend a girl with cancer, leading to the collapse of Greg's entire world.