Charlie writes his first letter to an anonymous friend after his best friend Michael's sudden suicide leaves him needing someone to listen.

Charlie breaks down crying and screaming in the school counselor's office after being asked how he feels about Michael's death.

Charlie attends a high school football game alone and is invited by two seniors, Sam and Patrick, to sit with them.

After the football game, Sam and Patrick take Charlie to the Big Boy diner and make him feel genuinely welcomed.

At his first party at Bob's house, Charlie unknowingly eats a pot brownie and begins hallucinating while Sam gets him a milkshake.

Charlie discovers Patrick secretly kissing the school quarterback Brad at the party and agrees to keep their relationship a secret.

Sam and Patrick bring Charlie to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the theater for the very first time.

Sam reveals she was kissed by her father's friend at age seven, then gives Charlie his very first real kiss.

Charlie takes LSD with friends at a New Year's gathering and later passes out in the snow, found pale blue by police.

After collapsing from LSD, Charlie's parents enroll him in regular sessions with a psychiatrist.

When Craig skips the Rocky Horror show, Charlie steps in as Rocky and Mary Elizabeth asks him to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

During a truth-or-dare game, Charlie kisses Sam instead of Mary Elizabeth, humiliating her and causing his friends to cut him off.

When Brad calls Patrick a slur in the school cafeteria and a fight breaks out, Charlie jumps in to defend Patrick.

While becoming intimate with Sam, Charlie grows panicked and later dreams a memory of Aunt Helen sexually abusing him as a child.

Charlie's parents find him naked and catatonic; he is hospitalized, confronts his childhood abuse, and finally stands in the tunnel feeling infinite.

Charlie begins his freshman year alone, grieving his best friend Michael's suicide and writing letters to an anonymous stranger just to feel heard. He meets seniors Sam and Patrick at a football game, and their friendship pulls him into parties, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and his first experiences with drugs. Sam gives Charlie his first real kiss, but his love for her stays mostly unexpressed as he stumbles through a painful relationship with Mary Elizabeth that ends in public humiliation. After being cut off from his friends, Charlie earns his way back by jumping into a violent cafeteria fight to defend Patrick against Brad's football teammates. An intimate moment with Sam on her last night before college triggers Charlie's long-suppressed memory of being sexually abused by Aunt Helen as a child. Charlie is found catatonic by his parents, hospitalized for two months, and finally begins to confront his trauma before reuniting with Sam and Patrick under the tunnel, at last feeling truly present.

Charlie's journey through freshman year from isolation to healing.

A boy makes Charlie's sister a handmade mixtape called 'Autumn Leaves,' which she dismisses and passes along to Charlie, who loves it.

Charlie witnesses his sister's boyfriend slap her across the face, and she makes Charlie promise not to tell their parents.

Charlie's older brother departs for college football at Penn State, leaving the house noticeably quieter and lonelier for Charlie.

Bill gives Charlie a C on his To Kill a Mockingbird essay and tells him that people accept the love they think they deserve.

When Charlie's brother cannot come home for Thanksgiving, his upset mother takes Charlie shopping for new clothes as a distraction.

Charlie's whole family gathers around the television to watch his brother play college football, and the grandfather cries quietly to himself.

Charlie spends all night hand-coloring the cover of a mixtape called 'One Winter' to give Patrick as his Secret Santa gift.

Charlie buys his father the final episode of M*A*S*H on videocassette for Christmas after finally figuring out the right gift to give him.

At the Christmas party, Sam gives Charlie an old typewriter and types 'Write about me someday' on the first blank page.

Charlie drives alone for the first time, visits Aunt Helen's grave to tell her about his friends, and promises to cry only about important things.

Brad's father discovers Brad with Patrick and beats him with a belt, forcing Patrick to leave the house without being able to help.

Charlie secretly sneaks into The Rocky Horror Picture Show to watch Patrick perform and confirm that he is going to be okay.

Patrick takes Charlie to gay bars, nightclubs, and an anonymous park where men meet, while processing his heartbreak over Brad.

Bill invites Charlie to his home and tells him he is the most gifted and special student he has ever taught.

Charlie gives Sam and Patrick each a stack of his most treasured extracurricular books as graduation gifts along with a personal card.

While Charlie's freshman year is defined by dramatic turning points, it is equally shaped by smaller acts of connection and care at home and among friends. His older brother's departure for Penn State and a handmade mixtape passed down from his sister's admirer both mark the early texture of a year full of change. Charlie's friendship with Patrick deepens through a thoughtfully crafted Secret Santa exchange, and the Christmas party at Sam and Patrick's house becomes one of the warmest nights of his year. The holiday season also brings hardship, including Charlie's first solo drive to visit Aunt Helen's grave and Brad's father violently discovering his son with Patrick, setting off a long stretch of painful nights Charlie quietly shares with Patrick. The school year closes with Charlie's sister graduating at the top of her class and Charlie giving Sam and Patrick his entire collection of Bill's assigned books, a gesture that captures everything their friendship has meant to him.

The friendships, family bonds, and quiet moments behind the main story.

After a classmate named Sean hits Charlie first, Charlie retaliates with shocking force, then bursts into tears disturbed by his own reaction.

Charlie tells Sam about a sex dream he had involving her, and she gently tells him she is too old for him romantically.

Charlie discovers his father secretly crying in the kitchen during the final M*A*S*H episode, and the two share a quiet private moment.

While riding to a party in Sam's truck, a song plays on the radio and Charlie says for the first time that he feels infinite.

After Charlie tells his teacher Bill about his sister being hit, Bill calls Charlie's parents, leading to her boyfriend being forbidden from seeing her.

Patrick confides in Charlie the full story of how he and Brad first locked eyes at a party and began their secret relationship.

Bill gives Charlie The Catcher in the Rye for the holiday break, and Charlie reads it three times during a period of deep depression.

A drunk grandfather tells Charlie and his brother that he used to beat their mother and Aunt Helen as children for getting bad grades.

Charlie gives Sam the old Beatles record that Aunt Helen once gave him; Sam kisses his cheek and whispers that she loves him.

Charlie's mother reveals at Aunt Helen's grave that a family friend molested Helen as a child and her parents never believed her.

Charlie's sister reveals she is pregnant after her boyfriend breaks up with her, and she begs Charlie to drive her to a clinic.

Mary Elizabeth gives Charlie an e.e. cummings poetry book; he secretly returns it to the bookstore out of resentment, then guiltily retrieves it.

Patrick spots Brad at an anonymous park where men meet secretly, then drives Charlie home in total silence and hurls a wine bottle out the window.

Craig's friend Peter forces Craig to confess to Sam that he has been cheating on her throughout their entire relationship.

Sam tells Charlie that listening is not enough and that he must act on his feelings, so he kisses her and she kisses him back.

Beneath the surface of Charlie's freshman year lies a series of revelations and turning points that gradually expose who he is and why. Early signs of his emotional complexity appear when he retaliates against a bully with startling force and then cries, and when he honestly tells Sam about a dream involving her, showing both his sensitivity and his compulsion toward honesty. Secrets passed between characters accumulate throughout the year, from Patrick describing how he and Brad first fell for each other to Charlie's mother revealing Aunt Helen's own childhood molestation at her graveside. The holidays deepen Charlie's instability, as his grandfather's drunken confession about beating Charlie's mother and Aunt Helen collides with a period of severe seasonal depression and Charlie's meaningful gift of a Beatles record to Sam. A chain of events involving Mary Elizabeth — including Charlie guiltily returning her poetry book and giving her a dismissively received copy of To Kill a Mockingbird — builds toward the disastrous truth-or-dare kiss. The year resolves when Sam directly confronts Charlie's passivity, insisting he must act on his feelings rather than simply observe, and their intimacy finally cracks open the trauma he has been carrying all along.