The film follows a beautiful but troubled young girl, Debbie Strand (Rose McGowan) placed in foster care with her estranged grandmother (Peg Shirley) in Los Angeles after her mother and her mother's boyfriend die in a suspicious house fire. Her grandmother is an extremely strict, fundamentalist Christian, who is convinced that her granddaughter is exactly like her mother. She forces Debbie to wear her clothes instead of buying her a new wardrobe, and abuses her by beating her with her walking cane. When she tells Debbie she's putting her in a reform school, Debbie yanks her cane out of her hands and beats her to death with it.