Scottie Nichols is a 10-year-old latch-key kid in 1985. He returns home from school and lets himself into the cheap apartment he lives in alone with his mother. He puts the mail in the kitchen. He left a plate of cookies for his father, but they're undisturbed. He eats them.
Scottie takes a comic book and an envelope from his backpack and puts them on his desk. The comic is Secret Wars II issue #3. The envelope is a letter from the school to his mom. It discusses his lack of friends and socialization at school. He forges his mom's signature on the letter and puts it back in his backpack.
On the fridge is a note from Whitney, Scottie's mom. It tells him that she's working late tonight, he can cook for himself and some teacher at her school was throwing out some magazines, so she grabbed them. He flips through the magazines and decides to keep a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and an issue of Rolling Stone with Prince on the cover. He's not interested in the rest.
Scottie watches "The Invaders," eats Cocoa Puffs and drinks Strawberry Quick. He's really into the show, cheering along as humans fight aliens. Once the show is over, he puts everything away and goes to his room.
Scottie reads the Secret Wars II comic and doesn't really love it. He puts it away, tucking it in a short box behind his favorite comic book, Secret Wars #1. He flips slowly through the Swimsuit Issue, then sticks it between the mattresses of his bed. He flips through the Rolling Stone article, reading the Prince article. That's when he finds an ad for the Columbia House Tape Club. He's intrigued. He fills out the reply post card and puts it in the mail.
Scottie does his usual after school routine of "The Invaders," Cocoa Puffs and Strawberry Quick when the doorbell rings. He opens the door and a box addressed to Scott Nicholson awaits. He puzzles over the typo and takes the box inside.
Scottie opens the box, which is filled with popular new cassettes. His favorite is "Purple Rain" and he plays it and goes crazy.
He talks to his mom on the phone about the typo on the Columbia House box. He asks her to bring home some stamps, so he can send them a letter to fix it. She says she'll get them on Friday and has to go to class.
On Friday, his mom leaves a note on the fridge saying she wasn't able to get stamps this week. She got some more magazines, though. Flipping through a magazine, Scottie finds another Columbia House ad. It doesn't need postage, so he very clearly puts "Scottie Nichols" on the card, orders new tapes and puts it in the mail.
Another day, the doorbell rings and there are two packages for him. The big box is addressed to "Scottie Nichols" and contains the new dozen cassettes. The smaller one is addressed to "Scott Nicholson" and contains a different new tape. Scottie is puzzled.
Another day, the doorbell rings and a small package is there. It's for "Scott Nicholson" and it contains a cassette he doesn't really care about.
Another day, the doorbell rings. Another cassette arrives for "Scottie Nichols." A cancellation notice arrives for "Scott Nicholson." Scottie throws the cancellation notice in the trash and pushes it down where his mom can't see. The phone rings and his mom asks him if his father came by. Scottie looks at the untouched cookies and says no. She asks him if he wants to go to a baseball game, but he says he hasn't played since his father left and doesn't want to go.
Another day, the doorbell rings and there is another cassette (new Prince!) and a "Last Notice," both addressed to Scottie Nichols. In his room, he finds a wooden cassette rack. He's excited and puts nearly three dozen cassettes into the rack.
Another day, he comes in with a copy of a student newspaper. He looks through it to find a Columbia House ad that includes different, more underground albums. He orders another set of cassettes. This time he uses his mom's name to order this time.
Another day, he waits impatiently for the new package. It arrives and he goes and listens to a new cassette. This is the batch of cassettes ordered under his mom's name.
Another day, a single cassette arrives and he adds it to the collection, which is now at 99. One slot left in the cassette rack.
Another day, a new cassette arrives and it's all-black. The cover, the cassette, the spine, the liner notes. All black. No words. He plays it. A voice speaks from the cassette into Scottie's headphones. It says they know what he did and asks him if he really thought he wouldn't get caught. It yells at him that he didn't get away with it.
He rips the headphones off and throws them so hard, they pull out of the Walkman. The voice keeps talking. He tries to stop it, but it won't stop playing.
The voice tells him they know everything about him: where he lives, where his mother works and goes to school, they know he doesn't have any friends. The voice blames him for his dad leaving. The voice tells him he's only going to get one warning. If he keeps doing it, they're going to take all his stuff, destroy it, rip up his prized comic book and if that doesn't work, they'll get violent.
Scottie grabs his baseball bat and smashes the Walkman into bits. Then he smashes the other cassettes. He takes all the broken stuff outside and burns it.
Another day, he's watching TV when the doorbell rings. He's scared and doesn't want to answer. He forces himself to do it and it's nothing but the new phone book.
Six months later, Scottie comes home and discovers that his mom's new boyfriend gave her a combo CD/tape player/stereo. He hides from it at first, he reads his comics, tries to nap, etc. But eventually he goes to his bed and pulls "Purple Rain" from between the mattresses. He puts it in the new stereo and starts listening.
The doorbell rings and the movie cuts to black.