21-year-old Taylor (Robert Pattinson) is very rebellious. He lives in a small apartment with his roommates. He is addicted to books and nicotine all day long. He is irritable and even detained by the police for fighting. Facing his successful entrepreneur father Charles (Pierce Brosnan), Taylor is full of resistance and blames his brother's suicide and his sister's precocious personality on his father's neglect of them. Taylor and Ellie (Emilie de Ravin) started their relationship with a fight. Taylor was detained by a policeman (Chris Cooper) for fighting. A few days later, Taylor's roommate discovered that the policeman's daughter Ellie was in the same school as them. At the instigation of his roommate, Taylor and Ellie began to date. Faced with all kinds of misfortunes in life, Taylor chose to use confrontation to protect himself, while Ellie, who had similar misfortunes with him, enjoyed life with an optimistic and open-minded attitude...