Centers on the events leading up to the cataclysmic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20, 1980, and ending on the day of the eruption, May 18, 1980.

Follows the exploits of three teenage friends sharing the good times back at Rockaway Beach, Queens, New York during the summer of 1955.