It's 1958, the Cold War is on, and McCarthyism causes ordinary citizens to be suspected of treason. In Berkeley, California, fourteen-year-old Donna is happily organizing the Ritchie Valens fan club, when her father, a physics professor at the University of California, comes under investigation by the FBI. Her rebellious older sister, Alice, joins a group of beatniks before she is mysteriously whisked away from the family. Meanwhile, the sisters' mother suffers a nervous breakdown and must be hospitalized. It is up to Donna to find Alice and to defend her father when he faces possible...