Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.
It's New Year's 1980 in the San Fernando Valley, and a trio of wanna-be Woodward and Bernstein High School Journalists are out to expose a shady late night televangelist and shenanigans ensue.