Craig is armed with a college degree that has so far brought him nothing, certain that something better is just around the corner but unable to encounter it. He's been cohabiting with Ashley since college, and is caught in the dilemma of whether to break up with her or give in to marriage. Meanwhile, Ashley's efforts to earn a graduate degree seem futile considering that her diploma has taken up residence under the sofa cushions.

Stuck in dead-end jobs; weary of commercial, corporate, and parental influences; searching for their own identities; Ashley, Craig, and the other characters of Our Noise find refuge in the brash world of indie rock, thrift stores, coffee houses, zines, and cheap beers. There are Eileen, who ends up in Kitty, Virginia, by accident and forgets to leave, and the members of Bottlecap, Kitty's hometown band, trying to decide whether to sell out and go to the West Coast or continue in the life of a small band.

Chipp and Randy start a zine as a way to get their blood flowing for the first time even as Dave, the struggling founder of Violent Revolution Records, works as a waiter to fund his record label.