17-year old Brent Bishop has moved with his parents to Chicago. He goes to a party and want to become popular. But some bad thing happens. He feels upset, so he drives away and tries to kill himself in a car crash. He crashes into a car being driven by a girl named Lea. She dies but he survives. Lea's mother doesn’t let Brent to go to the jail, however she tells him to build the four whirligigs in the four corners of the continental United States.