In the 1970s, in a quiet suburb lives The Lisbon Family, mother (Kathleen Turner), father (James Woods), and five sisters. Each of the young girls is stunningly beautiful and carefully watched by their devoutly religious parents. More so after the youngest sister attempts, then successfully commits suicide. The parents all but sequester the girls and put even more stringent restrictions upon them. This mystery plus their beauty makes the girls very alluring to the young men in the community. The next school year, the oldest sister, Lux (Kirsten Dunst), becomes enamored of a young man named Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett). Lux convinces her wary parents to allow all the girls to go to prom as a group so that she can go herself. Lux and Trip are crowned homecoming royalty and have sex to celebrate, after which, Trip promptly dumps her. The events lead the girls to break curfew. Their parents remove them from school as punishment, further isolating them from their peers. The boys who were the girl’s prom dates are intrigued to the point of obsession to learn more about these strange young women.