The film is narrated by an author, Gordie Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss). After reading a newspaper article about the death of his friend Chris Chambers, Lachance recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy near the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959. In 1959, young Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing. He is rejected by his father, following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a Jeep accident. Denny paid Gordie much more attention than his parents did.
Gordie spends his time with three friends: Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he does not conform to the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family; Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) who is eccentric and physically scarred after his mentally unstable father held his ear to a stove; and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) who is overweight and timid and often picked on.
Gordie spends his time with three friends: Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he does not conform to the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family; Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) who is eccentric and physically scarred after his mentally unstable father held his ear to a stove; and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) who is overweight and timid and often picked on.