On the death of her stepfather, perky 16 year-old Louisiana girl Dede Truitt (Christina Ricci) moves in with her gay schoolteacher half-brother Bill (Martin Donovan) and immediately starts coming on to his sexual partner Matt Mateo (Ivan Sergei), finally forcing him into an affair in which she becomes pregnant. She tricks him into believing he impregnated her, but in fact the father of her child is her ex-boyfriend Randy "One Ball" Cates (William Lee Scott). She and Matt elope, leaving Bill and his uptight best friend Lucia DeLury (Lisa Kudrow), the sister of Bill's deceased previous lover, to try and track them down and sort out the mess.
In the meantime, Matt's "bit on the side," Jason Bock (Johnny Galecki), attempts to blackmail Bill, claiming he sexually assaulted him while he was a student, causing much media attention. As the situation snowballs, the only person who sees what Dede is up to is the frustrated acid-tongued Lucia. The whole affair blows into a scandal exposing her school teacher brother and the true parent of the child is called into question as it is revealed that there have been a series of lovers. The film's climax is set in Canada where all of the characters finally meet up, and where Deedee gives birth to her son Randy Jr.
After the birth, Dede goes to prison for a few months, then moves back in with Bill, while Matt and Jason travel together, and Lucia marries her old friend Sheriff Carl Tippett (Lyle Lovett). Narrating the ending, Dede sarcastically concludes that sex is the opposite of what people really want, leading to kids, disease, and relationships. At the end of the film, the vignettes of the various caring relationships among the characters shows the opposite of superficial sexual gratification.
This film is a black comedy, narrated by and centered around self-absorbed, manipulative, cynical teenager Dede who manages to destroy the lives of everyone she meets. There is some heart underneath all the back-stabbing, betrayals, crime, and seediness. Janet Maslin in The New York Times called it a "gleefully acerbic comedy". Film critic Roger Ebert enjoyed the voice-over narration supplied in-character by Ricci, calling it "refreshing" and comparing it to "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Mason Daring composed the original music, and Don Roos wrote the screenplay and directed.
