A young man finds solace with a young woman, his mother, and a high-school football coach who recruits him to quarterback a six-man team.

In Blue Springs, Montana, high school student Roy Chutney is beginning to lose his way in life largely the result of two simultaneous events. The first is that his father, Nelson Chutney, dies. Roy hadn't seen his father much since his parents divorced and his father remarried. Nelson was run over by a train, but Roy's mother, Evangeline Chutney, with who Roy has a somewhat emotionally distant relationship, believes he committed suicide. The second is that because funding to the school has reduced the football program to just a varsity team with no junior varsity, Roy, along with half the other players, is cut from the football squad, as his coach doesn't believe he is mentally tough enough despite he being a skilled player. The two incidents combined make the situation even worse for Roy as football was his primary connection to his father. Into Roy's life enters Gideon Ferguson, the local newspaper seller, who asks Roy to be part of his newly formed football team, which will play in a six-man back field league. Gid ends up being that father figure that is missing in Roy's life. That guidance is especially important as Roy begins his first sexual relationship, with Skyla Sisco, a local barmaid. However, Roy and Gid's relationship begins to change when rumors abound that Gid is gay and is romantically interested in Roy. Roy has to wade through the rumors and his own feelings both for Gid and Skyla in figuring out what to do regarding his relationships with them.—Huggo

Roy Chutney (Ryan GOSLING) is a high school senior in the fictional Montana town of Blue Springs. Roy does not have an especially close relationship with his mother Evangeline (Kelly LYNCH) and has not seen his father in years. That does not prevent Roy from feeling emotionally devastated when he learns that his father has died, having been hit by a freight train, and Roy's self-esteem takes a beating when he is cut from the high school football team shortly afterward. Roy whiles away his time by swilling beer with his best friend, Tracy Two Dogs (Eddie SPEARS), and falling into a romance with Skyla (Cleo DuVALL), a barmaid at a local tavern, but Roy's short time on the high school gridiron seems to have impressed Gideon Ferguson (David MORSE), a local character who coaches an unsanctioned high school six-man football team when he is not delivering newspapers or trying to score a gig singing country songs at nearby honky-tonks. Gideon thinks that Roy has potential and asks him to join his team; encouraged by Gideon's belief in him, Roy agrees, and he persuades Tracy and his friend Russ (Ken WHITE) to tag along. While playing hardscrabble six-man football helps restore Roy's self-confidence, he finds it does not answer his questions about his future or his relationship with Skyla. When Gideon's overwhelming interest in Roy begins to lend credence to town rumors that Gideon is gay, Roy starts to wonder just why he was asked to join the team. He finds out it is linked to the mysterious death of a young man in a nearby town.

Roy gets cut from his high school football team just days after his estranged father dies. For him, football is more than a proving ground; it is a promised escape from his lonely rural existence and salvation from the paralyzing passivity that dominates his life. Enter Gideon, a loner living on the roughneck fringe who is looking for gamers--kids who scrap hard--to play on his six-man football squad. Roy joins the Renegades, and he and Gideon enter into tenuous friendship that pushes the limits of male bonding.—Sujit R. Varma