Follows the story of Shaun, a 12-year-old kid growing up without a father in the north of England. Set during the summer holidays of 1983, the film charts his rites of passage from a scruffy misfit grieving the loss of his father into a shaven-headed thug whose anger and pain are embraced by the local skinhead fraternity. With no parents to guide him, Shaun seems set for self-destruction, but it's not long before he discovers that violence is the coward's answer.