 Around the Fire is the deeply resonant story of a boy named Simon (Devon Sawa), who despite being raised in an upper-class Manhattan household with all its privileges--and restrictions--is haunted by the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of his mother. In Simon s eyes, his high-powered businessman father Matt (Bill Smitrovich) wasted no time in remarrying his stepmother Lauren (Lisa Burgett), a woman with a perfect facade whom he suspects of having an affair with Matt long before his mother s demise. When Simon is sent away to boarding school in preparation to attend Princeton, he meets Andrew (Eric Mabius), who introduces him to marijuana and LSD, and immerses him into a whole new world populated by dreamers, artists, utopians, flower children and partiers who spend the better part of their lives "on tour" at musical festivals. Simon is deeply moved by the beauty and freedom of these people, and feels they are the family he has always sought. At his very first concert Simon meets Jennifer (Tara Reid), a beautiful young hippie to whom he is immediately attracted, Trace (Colman Domingo), a hipster on the road less traveled who immediately bonds with him, and Kevin (Henry Lubatti), a champion of the "seize the day" ethic who is dying of AIDS. As Simon delves deeper into this new-found free-spirited lifestyle, he must face an inevitable conflict not only with the life his father has planned for him, but also with the self-destructive emotional turmoil deep within. Struggling to come to terms with these conflicts, Simon makes a series of bad decisions which land him in a strict drug rehab program run by a street-smart, yet caring woman named Kate (Charlayne Woodard). It is here that Simon is made to take a look at himself in an honest light and to learn that until he finds out what is right for him, his chances for happiness will be fleeting at best.