Cassidy is an aimless, unmotivated graduate student. He's taken all of the conventional paths in life. On paper, he has all the makings of a successful, motivated young man. But he still feels desperately aimless, unsatisfied and unsure about where he fits in society. To make matters worse, Cassidy wakes up one morning with a horribly disfigured face, making it even harder to fit in with conventional society. As a result, he develops a proclivity for wandering around his small town at night to escape the orthodox. Cassidy soon finds that the town he lives in has a zany, surreal side, which he comes to know as the fringe. The fringe does not operate under conventional expectations. And Cassidy's inability to cure his disfigurement steadily makes it harder to blend with conventional society, pushing him farther into the fringe.