Lester Burnham (Spacey) is a 42-year-old writer who despises his superiors and feels his job has few prospects for advancement. His wife, Carolyn (Bening), is an ambitious real-estate broker; their 16-year-old daughter, Jane (Birch), abhors her parents, has low self-esteem and is saving money for a breast augmentation operation. The Burnhams' new neighbors are United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts (Cooper), his dissociative wife, Barbara (Janney), and their teenage son, Ricky (Bentley).
After watching a high school basketball game at which Jane is a cheerleader, Lester develops an infatuation with Jane's sexually precocious friend and classmate, Angela Hayes (Suvari). His fantasies entail a sexually aggressive Angela among red rose petals.
Frank controls Ricky with a strict disciplinarian lifestyle and gives him regular drug tests. Ricky, an avid pot smoker and drug dealer, makes deals with a client of his so he can have clean urine samples to get around these tests. Upon meeting a homosexual couple in the neighborhood, Frank reacts with disgust. Ricky frequently uses a hand-held video camera to record his surroundings and keeps hundreds of tapes in his bedroom.
Carolyn begins an affair with her business rival, Buddy Kane (Gallagher). Lester is about to be laid off when he blackmails his boss, quits his job and takes up low-pressure employment at a fast food chain. He trades in his car for a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, starts running, and lifts weights so he can "look good naked" to impress Angela, who he overheard telling Jane that she would find him sexy if he had more muscle. He takes up smoking marijuana, which he buys from Ricky. Lester continues to fantasize about Angela and flirts with her whenever she visits Jane, to the latter's disgust. Jane's friendship with Angela wanes and Jane begins a romantic relationship with Ricky; the two bond over his camcorder footage of what Ricky considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag that is being blown by the wind in front of a wall. Later that night, after a tense dinner and being slapped by her mother (who feels Jane is ungrateful for all she has), Jane reveals herself to Ricky through the window as he films her.
Lester accidentally discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently. Buddy responds by breaking off the affair with the excuse that it could lead to a financially ruinous divorce for him. Frank becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship and searches his son's room. He finds camcorder footage of Lester lifting weights in his garage while nude; Ricky had captured the footage by chance. After watching Ricky and Lester's drug rendezvous through the garage window, Frank mistakenly concludes that the two are engaged in a sexual relationship. That evening, Ricky returns home, where Frank beats him and accuses him of being a homosexual. Ricky falsely admits the charge and goads Frank into turning him out of their home. Ricky goes to Jane and asks her to flee with him to New York City. Angela protests and Ricky answers her vanity about her appearance by calling her ordinary.
Carolyn loads a gun and drives home. Frank confronts Lester in the garage and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the advance and Frank flees home. Moments later, Lester finds a distraught Angela; she asks him to confirm her beauty, and when Lester responds affirmatively, she begins to seduce him. After learning Angela is a virgin, Lester withdraws, and they bond instead over their shared personal frustrations. Angela tells Lester that Jane is in love; Lester answers Angela's question to his wellbeing by telling her he is happy. Angela goes to the bathroom and Lester smiles at a family photograph in the kitchen. A gunshot rings out and blood spatters on the kitchen wall in front of Lester as he is shot from behind. Ricky and Jane find him dead. Lester's final narration reflects on his life, and the actions of the other characters at the moment of his death are shown intermittently: Frank's returning home, bloodied, a gun missing from his collection, showing who the killer of Lester was; Carolyn's crying in their bedroom. Despite his death, Lester says he is happy, explaining that it is hard to be mad when there is so much beauty in the world.
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