On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students at the fictional Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, report for an all-day detention: socially awkward Brian Johnson, volatile wrestler Andrew Clark, shy loner Allison Reynolds, popular girl Claire Standish, and rebellious delinquent John Bender. They gather in the school library and meet with their vice principal Richard Vernon, who warns them not to talk or move from their seats and assigns each of them the task of writing a thousand-word essay describing "who you think you are."
