Ash Waters is destined for rock stardom from the moment she’s born. The daughter of musician Heath Waters, she grows up immersed in the iconic Los Angeles rock ‘n’ roll culture, visiting legendary landmarks like Amoeba Records from a young age. While Ash shares a close bond with her father, he struggles to balance home life with his rolling stone ways. Ultimately, Heath’s past catches up with him when a 12-year-old boy unexpectedly shows up with a note claiming to be his son. This bombshell drives Ash’s mother, Moneé, to leave the family after an ugly confrontation. Heath is left to raise Ash and her older half-brother, Jett, on his own.

With Heath trying to keep his dying music career alive, he spends most of Ash’s teenage years on the road, leaving her to fall into a pattern of mischief with her best friend, Lexi. The duo constantly gets into trouble at Fairfax High, where their only saving grace is their shared passion for rock ‘n’ roll. At their wits’ end with the structure of the academic system, the girls drop out of high school altogether to focus full-time on starting their own band. Filled with regret over his own misfortunes in the industry, Heath condemns the decision and kicks Ash out of the house.

Ash spends the next few years causing trouble with Lexi, Jett, and their bandmates, Maddox and JP. They play local gigs here and there, making just enough to get by—until JP books them a show at the iconic Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip. Overnight, they become a local sensation and the house band at the Whisky, cementing themselves as the new “band to see.”

Ash’s raw talent, combined with her apathy toward fame, makes her irresistible to the recording industry. Soon enough, legendary manager Sonny McCockren comes knocking. He capitalizes on Ash’s deep connection with youth—and the fact that she couldn’t care less about being labeled “the voice of a generation.” After recording their first studio album at the legendary Crossroads Records off Hollywood and Vine, the band shoots to number one on the charts—a position Ash despises. She doesn’t want to be an industry puppet. She just wants to write her music and express herself.

Cracking under the pressures of fame, Ash—and Lexi—begin to self-destruct. Her toxic boyfriend, Jake Bielder, only fuels the chaos, causing friction wherever he goes. The pressure builds to a breaking point and ultimately explodes with Lexi’s death, when she falls from a balcony into the Hollywood Canyon.

Now a hollow shell of herself, Ash withdraws from the world and retreats to a high-end Malibu rehab center to hide away. There, she writes a song in memory of Lexi. She brings the track to Sonny and the label, who eagerly help her record what is sure to be a masterpiece. However, when Ash learns she doesn’t have the final cut due to her recording contract, she is devastated by the fluffy pop rendition of her tribute song that the label releases. To make matters worse, the song is nominated for multiple Grammy Awards.

At the Grammys, Ash despises herself for being there—let alone the event itself—and reaches her breaking point. In a moment of defiance, she hijacks the limousine that brought her, holding the driver at gunpoint before coming to her senses and ordering him to pull over. In a full-circle moment, she realizes they’re parked outside the Whisky a Go Go, where it all began. Ash enters the venue and finally plays her song for Lexi—the way she originally wrote it: raw and emotional.