The movie starts off by introducing Gypsy (Sara Rue) and Clive (Kett Turton), two goth kids ages 25 and 18. Gypsy is a musician, brought up but a single father who owns a music shop and is seemingly supportive of his daughters talents. She idolizes Stevie Nicks as her mother did before her, her mother deserted her and her father while Gypsy was young to make it big in New York City. Clive is a high academic achiever with a 4.0 GPA and is in his final year of high school. His mind seems more focused on art, music, and gothic fantasies. Both of Clive’s parents died, as well as a sibling, he lives with his pregnant older sister.

As the movie progresses they both seem to be unwillfully living normal lives with an abnormal exterior. Gypsy works in a photo developing place where she seems to be doing ok for herself. She and Clive appear to be rather inseparable, as friends but teetering on the brink of more than friends. Clive, however, pretty much has convinced himself he’s gay, but he can’t say for sure because he hadn’t experienced a man and is still a virgin. Both are taunted by classmates and local residents.

While hanging out at Clive’s house and surfing the web for Stevie Nicks pictures they stumble across a Stevie Nicks wannabe contest that’s held in NYC. Clive convinces Gypsy she has to go to it and perform. She takes up the matter with her father, who makes her realize it’s a bad idea. Her mother, Velvet Vale, who deserted them, left during the same time years ago to try her luck at the same contest. Sympathizing with her father she tries to back out, Clive pushes her forward and they end up leaving Ohio in her Trans Am for NYC. On the way Clive asks Gypsy to sleep with him to find out if he might be straight, she turns him down.

First stop red neck karaoke lounge. A group of fraternity boys perform “I’m Too Sexy For My Shirt” in diapers and Clive comments, “the things some people do to fit in”. Gypsy mentions that one of the frat boys is gay, and tries to get Clive to make a move, he shows disinterest and the boys leave. Clive forces Gypsy into performing. She starts out shy and eventually gets the courage to really sing until she twirls and falls. The crowd laughs and some nasty trailer trash man makes a comment, causing them to storm out of the club. The lounge singer that opened the show and is played off as a local celebrity follows them out and invites them back to her apartment. Bambi, the singer, tells Gypsy she reminds her of herself when she was younger. Thinking that Bambi was famous, Gypsy takes this as a comment. They tell Bambi they’re headed to NYC to try to get Gypsy seen. They ask Bambi to come along and try to make a come back as a lounge singer. Bambi reluctantly accepts. Later that night Gypsy finds out that Bambi was nothing but a dreamer just like herself that never made and probably never will. In the morning they leave without her and Gypsy tries to turn back to Ohio, giving up the ghost in fear she’ll end up like Bambi or her mother.

Once again Clive talks her out of going back and they continue. Along the way they pick up an Amish hitchhiker, Zachariah, who’s trying to get away from the strict rules his community forces on him. They turn him into a goth and assume he’s gay for some comments and “come ons” he gestures towards Clive. Clive tries to make a move, and Zachariah comes clean on being straight and shows interest in Gypsy. Clive gets over making an ass of himself and the three of them decide to take absinthe at a rest stop they decide to crash at. Enter gay frat boy, Troy. With all four intoxicated Gypsy and Zachariah head into one of the public bathrooms, sex ensues. Troy comes on to Clive, they enter the other public bathroom, more sex ensues. Troy refuses to kiss Clive but has no qualms about sucking him off or sodomizing him.

As the absinthe wears away so does the delusions. Zachariah becomes Amish again and tells Gypsy he has a wife and kids waiting for him in his community and he can’t leave them. Gypsy gets upset, naturally. Troy leaves Clive for his frat buddies, acting sincere and telling him not to forget him. Clive is less upset and seemingly more relieved knowing that he is in fact gay. Gypsy goes outside to find Clive for a shoulder to cry on. Clive then tells her that he slept with Troy, which puts Gypsy in a bigger hole. She realizes that she’s scared to lose Clive’s love and companionship. The spend the night mad at each other and continue to argue in the early morning. They both fess up their feelings about each other. Clive realizes that his love for Gypsy was more along the lines of idolization rather than sexual fixation. Gypsy realizes she can deal with him being unattainable.

By the time they get to the car the group of frat boys had spray panted “freaks” along the side of it and are in the process of taking off. They run after their trailer. The boys dump something (pea soup?) on them and hit Clive in the face with a door. Troy smiles through the window knowingly.

Just as things couldn’t get any crappier they make it to New York City. The two of them are awed by the bright lights and such. They make it to the club that’s hosting Night of 1000 Stevies and are greeted by goths and Stevie wannabes like themselves. Both Clive and Gypsy think that they finally found the place where they’d fit in. They start talking to a group of goth boys. Clive lies about knowing about a book they mentioned and gets caught. They begin to mock him for being a poser. He finally realizes that even amongst his own kind of people he doesn’t fit in. Gypsy goes back stage to find out if she can perform and if her mother is in attendance. She finds out her mother had tried to contact her but her father had hid the letters. She receives a lockets left to the woman who runs the show that was meant to be given to her. Her mother had committed suicide four years prior on the same night. Gypsy calls her father and tells him the news. The woman that runs the show allows her to perform without the audition needed, instead of performing a Fleetwood Mac song she performs and original song she wrote for her mother. She is successful in her performance.

The movie ends with Gypsy and Clive in the cemetery where she visits her mother’s grave. She drapes a goth shawl over the tomb stone and returns to Clive. Gypsy decides not to go back to Ohio. Clive decides to go back and finish school and see where his future takes him. Gypsy gives him her Trans Am to return, since she would not be going back with him. He drives off leaving her to twirl like Stevie without falling.