The angels stand outside of Our Lady of Hope Senior High, watching as Sister Theodore enters the school. It’s early, 6:00am, and all is not well. Punk Rock music blares from an old car as it pulls into the parking lot. John and Cory sit inside, both are seventeen and they’re about to do something terrible. In the backseat of the car sits a box, and in the box are ten homemade bombs. They plan to blow up the school at seven o’clock, while everyone is next door at mass.

Bobby is also seventeen, and he’s the one responsible for building the bombs. When he arrives at the school to meet John and Cory, he realizes that he can’t go through with it. Instead he heads down the street to Millie’s, the greasy spoon diner where he works. He apologizes to Tess, the new manager, for being late, and starts his shift teaching Gloria how to work the register. They get along well.

Inside the school, Monica appears to Sister Theodore, telling her about the boys’ plan. She tells her that God will help her find the words to get through to the boys. Sister Theodore heads out into the hall with an invisible angel at her side, to confront her students. In a move shocking even to Cory, John pulls a gun from his pocket and shoots Sister Theodore in the shoulder. He then changes their plan. He tells Cory that they will now set the bombs to go off at eight when everyone is in the building. Cory doesn’t want to do it, but neither does he fight when John tells him he has no choice. They set about placing the bombs.

At the restaurant, Bobby grows increasingly nervous as seven o’clock draws near. Finally the time comes, but there is no explosion to be heard. He breathes a sigh of relief, figuring that his friends came to their senses.

Andrew stalks the halls of the high school with John, trying to talk him out of his misguided attempt at easing the pain in his life. When the bombs are set, Cory joins John. He is surprised by the presence of Andrew, who tells him that it was always John’s plan to set off the bombs when the school was full.

Monica helps the wounded Sister Theodore through the halls to the boys. She finally finds the words she needs to get through to them, and tells them of her past. She tells them that before she was a nun, her name was Mary Renaldi, and she once thought that destruction was the answer too. After the death of her brother in Vietnam, she helped blow up a college chemistry lab that was developing weapons. It was supposed to be empty, but turned out to have someone in it. She ran away and has lived with that regret every day. Cory runs, crying from the building to warn the incoming students, but John will not relent. Meanwhile Bobby has entered the school, and uses a fire extinguisher to knock John out and drag him to safety.

None of the entering students believe Cory, who they think of as a dork, and continue toward the school. Sister Theodore sees this, and turns back to sound the fire alarm, even as the clock strikes eight. The students are saved and she is redeemed.

After Monica leaves Gloria alone at a Portland bus stop, Gloria learns about the Jewish people…from 3 skinheads. A short time after that, Gloria meets Sam Silverstein. Sam is a sofer, a Jewish man who hand-makes the Torah, the holy scripture. Sam is amazed that Gloria does not know the truth about the holocaust and encourages her to learn about it. Monica gets a job at the Portland Daily News as an editorial writer, where she works with Sam’s daughter, Rachel “Silver.” Rachel is the paper’s editorial cartoonist but her job is in jeopardy because it isn’t edgy enough. Monica also notices Rachel’s extensive “personal collection” of cartoons depicting her father and the Jewish faith in unflattering light. When Rachel invites Monica over to the family dinner to be her “human shield” Monica quickly learns how deep the wounds are between Sam and Rachel.

The next day, Rachel puts one of the “personal jabs” in the paper and immediately her panel, “Chutzpah!” is the hit of Portland. She is thrilled that now she even receives fan mail. However, as her popularity grows, so do the number of Jewish people she offends. Monica writes an editorial criticizing her cartoon and the local rabbi asks Sam to stop Rachel. God reveals to Monica the key turning point in Sam and Rachel’s relationship: when Rachel was 9 years old, she wrote and colored a Torah on construction paper and presented it to her father. Sam, being determined to follow the letter of the law, chastised Rachel by saying “There are no pictures in the Torah, and besides, girls are not allowed make them.” Now, the rift has gotten so deep between them that Sam leads a protest of “Chutzpah!” in front of The Portland Daily News and disowns his daughter on the evening news.

The next day, Gloria goes to the holocaust museum and discovers the truth of the atrocity. She is humbled that Sam did not get angry at her ignorance, but encouraged her to seek the truth. She goes to Sam to make a personal apology to him for the offensive things she said to him at the bus stop. At the same time, Rachel receives a call from a reader who tells her that she “won’t have to worry about that protester” after tonight. When Sam and Gloria arrive at the synagogue, they discover the three skinheads vandalizing the place. Then the vandals turn their bats and knives on Sam and Gloria, however, Gloria reveals herself as an angel, “God made me, He made you, He made Sam. He made us all, He’s the Father of us all…that makes this man your brother, not your enemy!” The skinheads are incredulous and then threaten Gloria, but at that moment Andrew appears among them and addresses the skinheads. He tells them to turn from their anger before it’s too late. He also tells them that they will get caught and pay the price for their crimes. As they try and escape, the police arrive and arrest them, but the damage has been done; they destroyed the synagogue’s Torah and have beaten Sam, breaking both of his hands.

Monica and Rachel arrive and find Sam crumpled on the floor. Rachel realizes that her personal attacks on him and the Jewish people was the catalyst for these attacks. She and Sam reconcile and ask forgiveness for the years of hostile pride. Sam, with his hands still bandaged, happily lets Rachel help him complete the family Torah in the front of everyone in the synagogue on the Sabbath.